Untitled - Saints' Books

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264 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
grossest impurities went one day to confession to Father
Nicholas Zucchi, of the Society of Jesus. The Father
prescribed as a remedy for his wicked habits that he
should recommend himself, morning and evening, to the
Hail Marys."
purity of Mary, by saying three
After
the lapse of several years the sinner returned to Father
Zucchi, and by his confession showed that all his
vices were perfectly corrected. The Father asked him
how such a change had been wrought. He answered
that through the little devotion of saying the three
Hail Marys"
he had obtained the grace to change his
life.
Father Zucchi, with the permission of the penitent,
mentioned the fact from the pulpit. There was a soldier
present who was actually in the habit of sins of impurity;
he began to say every day the three Hail Marys,"
and
in a short time, with the aid that the divine Mother
obtained for him, he soon renounced the evil habit.
Through a false zeal, he went one day to the accomplice
of his sins in order to convert her; but when he was on
the point of entering her house he was suddenly driven
back, and found himself transported to a considerable
distance. He then understood that he had been pre
vented from speaking to the woman by a special grace
obtained for him by Mary, for which he thanked her.
Had he been placed again in the occasion of sin he
would probably have relapsed.*
* This double example
is related with some other details in the
Glories of Mary, p. 2, Disc. 4 (Vol. VII. page 379).