This does not mean that one who has discovered Mary
through a genuine devotion is exempt from crosses and sufferings. Far from it!
One is tried even more than others, because Mary, as Mother of the living,
gives to all her children splinters of the tree of life, which is the Cross of
Jesus. But while meting out crosses to them she gives the grace to bear them
with patience, and even with joy. In this way, the crosses she sends to those
who trust themselves to her are rather like sweetmeats, i.e.
"sweetened" crosses rather than "bitter" ones. If from time
to time they do taste the bitterness of the chalice from which we must drink to
become proven friends of God, the consolation and joy which their Mother sends
in the wake of their sorrows creates in them a strong desire to carry even
heavier and still more bitter crosses.
--St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, 22.
