Outside Our Lady of Victories Church in Kensington is a little fish tank with some water dribbling into it but on the wall is written these words to Mary:

Torrent of Compassion
River of Peace and Grace
Splendour of Purity, like the Dew of the Valley
Dear to God, Beloved to All

I memorised it and the words often came back to me. And worked.

But why should they? Doesn’t reason tell us that Mary was first a peasant girl, long dead, mother of a Man long since executed?

But the words “Torrent of Compassion” kept coming back to me. If one prays to her, it is as if a tower of compassion is staring over one. And after the tower, great masses of water cascade over one’s fears, you enter a slow-moving river of peace and grace.