May 27th
Chapter Twenty-Four of the Imitation of Mary, by Thomas a Kempis
How to Honor and Glorify Mary

Oh, if you would only progress in the praise and in the love of Jesus!  If you would from day to day serve better His divine Mother and honor her better!  But alas, you are weak, lukewarm, and negligent, often blamable and burdened with  numerous sins, unworthy even to name Jesus and Mary.  How then can you praise them worthily?  Praise is questionable when seen on the lips of a sinner.  Holiness can only be worthily praised by those who are themselves holy, and not by sinners.  What then must you do?  Be silent or speak?  Wretched are you if you keep silent; wretched if you speak unworthily.

How then should one act in order to find mercy with God and not to merit reproach?  Nothing is better to attract the love of Jesus and the compassion of His divine Mother than to humiliate yourself in all things, and at all times, and to put yourself always in the last place.  Have a lowly opinion of yourself; consider yourself as worth nothing; God will be lenient with you and will pardon you:  Mary will pray for you and will console you.  Far from being confounded in their presence, you will, on the contrary, receive, for your praises an abundant and unending reward.

If you can do no better in your life, at least in everything that depends on you let your intention replace the action until you are able to improve.  Let those who are fervent and full of devotion pray fervently and devoutly; let those who have little love or ardor offer to Jesus at least the little they have through the hands of Mary, the Mother of the living flame.

Alas!  We would be unworthy by ourselves to appear in the presence of the Mother of God, and to speak in order to pray worthily before her, if Mary herself did not call sinners to the consoling assembly of the saints, according to the beloved word of the royal prophet:  "The poor and needy shall come to praise thy name."

Comfort with your holy words, O Mary, my sorrowful soul and my dejected heart.  Say only one word and once again I shall regain courage from your consolation.  I do not ask for a difficult or an impossible work, but only that you might say to my heart and to my soul that intimate word of encouragement which alone can give back to me joy and happiness.

I come to you as an abandoned son:  receive me with a mother's smile, O Mary, so that your repentant servant may know that he has found grace and pardon.  Give me the help that my heart solicits and the consolation that my soul desires: give them to me without delay, O my mother!