J.M.J. "Why is it that most conversions of sinners are not lasting? Why do they
relapse so easily into sin? Why is it that most of the faithful, instead of making
progress in one virtue after another and so acquiring new graces, often lose the little
grace and virtue they have? This misfortune arises, as I have already shown, from the fact
that man, so prone to evil, so weak and changeable, trusts himself too much, relies on his
own strength, and wrongly presumes he is able to safeguard his precious graces, virtues
and merits.
"By this devotion we entrust all we possess to Mary, the faithful Virgin.
We choose her as the guardian of all our possessions in the natural and supernatural
sphere. We trust her because she is faithful, we rely on her strength, we count on her
mercy and charity to preserve and increase our virtues and merits in spite of the efforts
of the devil, the world, and the flesh to rob us of them. We say to her as a good child
would say to its mother or a faithful servant to the mistress of the house, 'My dear
Mother and Mistress, I realize that up to now I have received from God through your
intercession more graces than I deserve. But bitter experience has taught me that I carry
these riches in a very fragile vessel and that I am too weak and sinful to guard them by
myself. Please accept in trust everything I possess, and in your faithfulness and power
keep it for me. If you watch over me, I shall lose nothing. If you support me, I shall not
fail. If you protect me, I shall be safe from my enemies.'"
--Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 173.
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