Category: 21.v.22 Easter V

Modern heretics cannot endure that we should salute and call Mary our hope: “Hail, our Hope!” They say that God alone is our hope, and that He curses those who put their trust in creatures in these words of the Prophet Jeremias: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man-(Jer. xvii. 5). Mary, they exclaim, is a creature; and how can a creature be our hope? This is what the heretics say: but in spite of this the holy Church obliges all Ecclesiastics and Religious each day to raise their voices; and in the name of all the faithful to invoke and call Mary by the sweet name of “our Hope”-the hope of all.

This is to enter into the joy of the Lord; that is, to enjoy the enjoyment of God, as is promised to His faithful servants: Well done, thou good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things .. enter thou into the joy of thy Lord-(Matt. xxv. 23).

Such also will be your death if you are faithful to Mary. Though you may have hitherto offended God, she will procure you a sweet and happy death. And if by chance at that moment you are greatly alarmed and lose confidence at the sight of your sins, she will come and encourage you, as she did Adolphus, Count of Alsace, who abandoned the world and entered the Order of St. Francis.