Mary to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary: "I only acquired virtue by effort and continual prayer"

Saint Elizabeth, a Benedictine nun from the monastery of Schoenau (Germany), received the following revelation from the Virgin Mary, as reported by Saint Bonaventure:

"When my father and mother left me in the Temple, I resolved in my heart to take God as my father, and I often asked myself what I could do to please him. Moreover, I vowed to keep my virginity, to possess nothing on earth, and I put all my will into God's hands."

She added: "Of all the divine precepts, the one I had constantly before my eyes was that of love: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. In the middle of the night, I would go before the Temple altar to ask for the grace to fulfill the precepts of the Law. Then, longing for the birth of the Mother of the Redeemer, I begged God to preserve my eyes to see her, my tongue to praise her, my hands and feet to serve her, and my knees to adore in her womb the only Son of God."

And as Elizabeth then said to her: "But my Queen, were you not full of grace and virtue?", the Blessed Virgin replied: "Know that I considered myself the vilest creature and the most unworthy of divine grace, so I did not cease to ask for virtue and grace. (...) I only acquired virtue by effort and continual prayer."

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary