The Virgin of the Lilies or How to Pray Always

William Adolphe Bouguereau • The Virgin of the Lilies 1899 

To know you, my Lady―this itself is God's gift to me and I am very grateful to Him for it. If I did not know you or if I forgot you, what a calamity it would be for me! Then the chance of my salvation would be poor indeed. But I do know you, my dear Mother. I bless you, I love you and I have full confidence in you. In your hands I place my whole life.

Blessed is he who knows you, O Mary, and who trusts in you.

How to Pray Always

 

“As you breathe in,” he told him, say, ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ and as you breathe out, say, ‘Have mercy on me.”