But far more important than any external devotion to our Lady is the inward spirit which keeps us in constant communion with our heavenly Mother, teaching us to invoke her help silently throughout the day and above all in the onrush of any sudden temptation that may assail us. Whenever such temptations, whether against faith, or purity, or gentleness, or any other Christian virtue, make known their unwelcome presence, we are safe if we think of Mary and call on Mary in our hearts. We know that whatever be the revolt of our lower appetites, there will be no surrender of the citadel—that is to say, the will—so long as we have mentally renounced the evil and placed our citadel in the custody of the Mother of our Lord. She will never suffer us, so long as we have entrusted our cause to her keeping, to be separated, by wilful revolt, from her Divine Son.
