How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The Daughters stayed with their arms reaching into the air, giving off the feeling they were rising with Mary. Then August picked up a jar of Black Madonna Honey from behind June's chair, and what she did with it brought everybody back to earth. She opened the lid and tuned it upside down over Our Lady's head (13.87).
Once again, the image of Mary/Our Lady is associated with the act of rising. In fact, the Daughters' worship of Mary makes them, too, feel like they can rise—which is the effect worshiping Our Lady of Chains had on the slaves, according to August's story. This brand of spiritualism and ritual seems to strengthen the Daughters.
Quote #8
I feel her in unexpected moments, her Assumption into heaven happening in places inside me. She will suddenly rise, and when she does, she does not go up, up into the sky, but further and further inside me. August says she goes into the holes life has gouged out of us (14.226)
Through her own worship of Our Lady of Chains, Lily, too, begins to feel like she is empowered to "rise," metaphorically speaking, having started to heal from the "holes" that life has made in her.
Quote #9
'You don't have to put your hand on Mary's heart to get strength and consolation and rescue, and all the other things we need to get through life,' she said. 'You can place it right here on your own heart. Your own heart' (14.101).
These are August's words to Lily toward the end of the novel. As we mentioned elsewhere, despite all her reverence for Our Lady, August drives home here that, in her view, Our Lady is just a symbol of strength that comes from within.