True devotion to the Blessed Virgin is the one that produces fruits of life; do not forget this, my brothers and sisters. We can fall into the illusion of believing that with statues and pictures, processions, rosaries, medals, scapulars and pilgrimages, we’ve got it made, we have true devotion. All these outward signs of piety, without conformity to the will of the Blessed Virgin and of Her Son, are false devotion. And that is why the Marian devotion has been criticized so much. It is one of the reasons Protestants have come to hold it in aversion; they saw that among a great number of Christians, this sort of devotion produced nothing. It was a fruitless devotion. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the Will of My Father,10 says Jesus in the Gospel. It is not words, considerations, exclamations that God expects of us, it is acts. Obviously, this does not mean that we must not have any sentiments of love toward Heaven. Certainly there must be some, but that is not everything. In family life, for example, there are affectionate exchanges between parents and children, TRUE DEVOTION OR SUPERSTITION? 21 ————— 10. St. Matthew 7:21.
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