Living in the intimacy of the Virgin Mary is the royal way to go to God

There are three stages in the true devotion to the Blessed Virgin: invocation, imitation, and intimacy. When we love someone, we have their name and their memory constantly in our heart.

We begin by invoking Mary because we feel the need for her help. Then we love her more and we feel the need to resemble her. So we try to imitate her. To imitate her, we feel the need to know her better ... The more we know her, the more we love her and the more we want to enter into her intimacy.

To live in the intimacy of the Virgin Mary is a great joy; it is the royal way to go to God. With Mary, life is beautiful. With her and in her, one tastes the unfathomable riches of the Savior's heart. One cannot truly love Christ without loving his Mother and loving all those whom Christ has loved. Mary introduces us to the mystery of the Church. To pretend to love Christ and not to love Mary and the Church is a lack of loyalty, because Christ is inseparable from his Church.

Despite appearances, true devotion to the Virgin Mary is flourishing in our world. She is a sign of youth and a bearer of joy. Brother Gabriel Mossier (Trappist, 1835-1897) said, speaking with experience: "If we knew all the goods brought to us by the love of the Virgin Mary, there would be no sin, no hell, as there is joy in serving the Lord."

Father Bernard Martelet (1902-1988)

Trappist and author, for Marie de Nazareth