Theologians apply to Mary these words of Ecclesiasticus: “Her bands are a healthful binding.”[190] Wherefore are they called bands, asks St. Lawrence Justinian, unless because she binds her servants, that they may not wander in forbidden fields?[191] St. Bonaventure explains in a similar manner the words of the office of Mary: “My abode is in the full assembly of saints.”[192] He says that Mary is not only established in the fulness of the saints, but that she also upholds the saints, that they may not fall away; she sustains their virtue that it may not waver, and prevents the demons from doing them harm.[193] It is said that “all her domestics are clothed with double garments.”[194] Cornelius à Lapide thus describes this double garment: It is a double garment, because she clothes her servants with the virtues of her Son, as well as with her own;[195] and, thus clothed, they will preserve holy perseverance. For this reason, St. Philip Neri always admonished his penitents by saying to them: My children, if you desire perseverance, be devout to Mary. The venerable brother John Berchmans, of the Company of Jesus, also said: He who loves Mary, shall have perseverance. The reflection which Rupert the Abbot makes upon the prodigal son is very beautiful. If the mother of this prodigal son had been living, he would either never have left his father’s house, or would have returned much sooner.[196] And by this he wished to say, that he who is a child of Mary, either never departs from God, or if for his misfortune he departs, by means of Mary he quickly returns. Oh, if all men loved this most kind and loving Lady, and in temptations always and immediately had recourse to her, who would fall? Who would be lost? He falls and is lost who does not flee to Mary. St. Lawrence Justinian applies to Mary these words of Ecclesiasticus: “I have walked in the waves of the sea;”[197] and makes her to say: I walk with my servants in the midst of the tempests to which they are exposed, to assist them, and prevent them from falling into the precipice of sin.[198]