We are accused of pompously eulogizing Mary and are blamed for the honor we render her. I do not refer to the impious, but rather to the poorly instructed Christians who do not know the gift of God in this miracle of His omnipotence. Can we really assert too much, do too much, provided we do not declare her equal to the Divinity, provided we make a distinction between her veneration and that of the Divinity? What has God said of Mary? What has He done for her? He is our Model!

Our Founder and his successors insisted on our duty to spread knowledge of and devotion to Mary.

Mary has the mission to give Jesus to the world. To reveal Jesus to the world is to lead it to Jesus. In the retreat of 1822 Father Chaminade reasoned: "How is it possible to find Jesus without Mary, since Jesus did not come to us except with Mary's consent!… We reach Jesus only through Mary, just as Jesus came to us only through her."

The promotion of knowledge and love of Mary is the essential purpose of the Society of Mary, its characteristic, its great duty, the condition sine qua non of success with souls. It is the raison d'etre of the Society of Mary. For this apostolate Father Chaminade received from God the mission to found the Marianist Family, as he explained so vibrantly in the letter to the retreat masters of 1839.

This is the characteristic of our Society, our great duty, and the essential condition for apostolic success.