Oh, what a signal mark of predestination have the servants of Mary! The holy Church applies to this divine mother the words of Ecclesiasticus, and makes her say for the comfort of her servants: “In all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.”[718] Cardinal Hugo, commenting on this, remarks: Blessed is he in whose habitation the holy Virgin found rest: “Beatus in cujus domo beatæ Virgo requiem invenerit.” Mary, through the love she bears to all, seeks to make devotion to her prevail in all hearts. Many do not receive it, or do not preserve it; blessed is he who receives it and preserves it. In the inheritance of the Lord will I abide; that is, adds the learned Paciucchelli, in those who are the inheritance of the Lord.[719] Devotion to the Virgin abides in all those who are the inheritance of the Lord, that is, who will be in heaven praising him eternally. Mary continues in the passage above cited: “He that made me, rested in my tabernacle, and he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect.”[720] My Creator has condescended to come and rest in my bosom, and has willed that I should inhabit in the hearts of all the elect, whom Jacob prefigured, and who are the inheritance of the Virgin; and he has ordained that devotion to me and confidence in me should take root in the hearts of the elect. Oh, how many would have failed of being among the blessed in heaven, if Mary, by her powerful intercession, had not conducted them thither! “I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth;”[721] thus Cardinal Hugo puts into her mouth these words of the same chapter of Ecclesiasticus: I have made to shine in heaven as many eternal lights as I have devoted servants. Whence the same author adds, commenting on this text: Many saints are in heaven by her intercession, who never would have been there without it.[722] St. Bonaventure says, that the gate of heaven will be opened to receive all those who trust in the protection of Mary.[723] Hence St. Ephrem called devotion to the divine mother the opening of paradise.[724] And the devout Blosius, addressing the Virgin, says to her: Lady, to thee are committed the keys and the treasures of the heavenly kingdom.[725] And, therefore, we should continually supplicate her in the words of St. Ambrose: Open to us, oh Virgin, heaven, for thou hast the keys of it.[726] Nay, thou art even the gate of it, as the holy Church names thee, “Janua cœli.” For this reason the great mother is also called by the holy Church: Star of the sea: “Ave, Maris stella.” For as navigators, says the angelic St. Thomas, are guided to port by means of a star, thus Christians are guided to heaven by means of Mary.[727]