If the sun ceased to rise, says St. Bernard, how could the world become other than a chaos of darkness and horror? And applying his question to Mary, he repeats it: “Take away the sun, and where will the day be? Take away Mary, and what will be left but the darkest night?” (Tolle corpus hoc solare, ubi dies? Tolle Mariam, quid nisi densissimae tenebrae relinquentur?)

When a soul loses devotion to Mary, it is immediatley enveloped in darkness, and in that darkness of which the Holy Ghost speaks in the Psalms: “Thou has appointed darkness, and it is night; in it shall all the beasts of the woods go about.” When the light of heaven ceases to shine in a soul, all is darkness and it becomes the haunt of devils and of every sin. St. Anselm says that “if anyone is disregarded and contemned by Mary, he is necessarily lost” (omnis a te aversus et a te despectus necesse est ut intereat); and therefore we may with reason exclaim, Woe to those who despise its light! that is to say, all who despise devotion to Mary.

St. Francis Borgia always doubted the perseverance of those in whom he did not find particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin. On one occasion he questioned some novices as to the saints towards whom they had special devotion, and perceiving some who had it not towards Mary, he instantly warned the master of novices, and desired him to keep a more attentive watch over these unfortunate young men, who all, as he had feared, lost their vocations and renounced the religious state.

It was, then, not without reason that St. Germanus called the most Blessed Virgin the breath of Christians; for as the body cannot live without breathing, so this soul cannot live without having recourse to and recommending itself to Mary, by whose means we certainly acquire and preserve the life of divine grace within our souls. But I will quote the saint’s own words: “As breathing is not only a sign but even a cause of life, so the name of Mary, which is constantly found on the lips of God’s servants, both proves that they are truly alive, and at the same time causes and preserves their life, and gives them every succour.” (Quomodo enim corpus nostrum vitalis signum operationis habet respirationem, ita etiam sanctissimum tuum nomen, quod in ore servorum tuorum versatur assidue in omni tempore, loco, et modo, vitae, laetitiae, et auxilii non solum est signum, sed ea etiam procurat et conciliat.)

— St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, The Glories of Mary