Catholic during the Great Apostasy

If God had not tempered the just judgments of justice with mercy, the earth with all mankind under the weight of sins would have collapsed into hell; and apart from destruction, would have left no trace. But God, in His infinite mercy for us, had mercy on creation; and, unmindful of His own offense, sacrificed Himself for the sin of the world, and together to conquer Satan He made use of a weak, innocent Virgin, who with her bare foot crushed the serpent’s head and with feeble hands broke the chain which bound the earth to hell. Through her the Saviour came and cleansed mankind from original sin.

Loneliness of the Soul – Forbidden E-book

How can we not trust in the power and efficacious protection of Mary, when there is no sin in the world for which the Blessed Mother would not obtain pardon from God, if only the offender would ask her in faith and stand before God in humility! Her delight is precisely to dissolve the hardest fetters and liberate sinners, giving them the freedom of the Sons of Christ. Her heavenly happiness blossoms with the salvation of souls, and her most beloved retinue is composed of spirits whom she has rescued from sin and returned in love to the Father.

Each one of us, therefore, who, drowning in sin, does not dare to rise up, does so deliberately and takes the loss of his soul on his own account; for he cannot complain of a lack of help from Heaven, for our Mother, the refuge of “sinners”, takes care of it, and does not deny anyone her powerful protection and support for conversion. Sin condemns us, but in fact it is only lack of love, obstinacy and despair that condemns us.

But as long as man lives in this world, he has time to work on the work of salvation. Certainly the later he begins this work, the more difficult it becomes; after all, we can see that some, through zeal and an excess of love, speed up and vindicate the lost time, shining in the evening of life with a radiance of virtues like the sun which, hidden behind clouds all day, shines with a graceful brightness towards the west. Where, however, the relationship between God and man has long been blurred by sins, it is difficult to recover without the help of the Blessed Virgin, and the easiest way for a sinner to go to God is through her merciful mediation.

For this, a sinner who does not feel drawn by spirit to the Blessed Virgin, usually has a doubtful case in Heaven, because he must be a man of hard heart, scanty head and dry feeling.

One cannot even comprehend, as it were, why not love, venerate, adore the Blessed Virgin? Her who is tender, merciful, benevolent, our Mother, our Lady and our Sister? Her who, in our orphanhood, is our only Guardian?

This would be a strange hardness and blindness, for we can see that every earthly child, when it is somewhat afraid of its father and does not dare to discuss its worries confidentially with him, knows that it is easier with its mother; to her, therefore, it tenderly complains, confidently admits its perversions and entrusts its failings, places its hopes in her heart, and through her, it bakes and loves its affairs before its father’s court. Such is the usual mode on earth, and the same in Heaven. God is pleased to see sinners go to His mercy through the mediation of the Saviour’s Mother; and therefore, with the love of the Father and the tenderness of the Son, He accepts this mediation of the Daughter, and forgives much to sincere lovers of Mary.

Therefore, a sinner cannot doubt the remission of his sins when, in the needs of his soul, he confidently turns to the Saviour Mother, who can do more with God than all the heavenly spirits together, according to the expression of Saint Anthony: “In vain would you go to the saints if she (Mary) did not help you “.

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From the manuscripts of Father Karol Antoniewicz S. J. reprinted separately from a devotional book by the same author. Kraków. 1883.