True Devotion to Mary
By Saint Louis De Montfort
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Index
1. Necessity of the Blessed Virgin and of Devotion to Her.
2. Mary was necesarry to God in the incarnation of the Word.
3. Mary is necessary to God in the sanctification of souls.
4. Providential function of Mary in the latter times.
5. Fundamental truths of devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
6. Jesus Christ is the last end of devotion to Mary.
7. We belong to Jesus and mary as their slaves.
8. We need Mary in order to die to ourselves.
9. We need Mary as our Mediatrix with our Mediator, Jesus Christ.
10. We need Mary in order to preserve the graces and treasures we have received from God.
11. Choice of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
12. False devotions to the Blessed Virgin and false devotees.
13. True devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
Necessity of the Blessed Virgin and of Devotion to Her
Chapter One
14. I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come
from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less
than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is "He who is"
(Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to
Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for
the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has
but to will in order to do everything.
15. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now - that is, God having
willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin
ever since He created her - we may well think He will not change His conduct in
the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or
in His conduct.
Mary was necesarry to God in the incarnation of the Word
Article One
16. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His only-begotten Son to
the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers
the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this
treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found
grace before God (Lk. 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her
virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God
directly from the Father's hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world
might receive Him through her.
The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary. God
the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary; but it was only after having asked
her consent by one of the first ministers of His court.
17. God he Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere
creature was capable of it, in order that He might giver her the power to
produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.
18. God the Son descended into her virginal womb as the New Adam into His
terrestrial paradise, to take His pleasure there, and to work in secret the
marvels of grace.
God made Man found His liberty in seeing Himself imprisoned in her womb. He made
His omnipotence shine forth in letting Himself be carried by that humble maiden.
He found His glory and His Father's in hiding His splendours from all creatures
here below, and revealing them to Mary only. He glorified His independence and
His majesty in depending on that sweet Virgin in His conception, in His birth,
in His presentation in the temple, in His hidden life of their years, and even
in His death, where she was to be present in order that He might make with her
but one same sacrifice and be immolated to the Eternal Father by her consent,
just as Isaac of old was offered by Abraham's consent to the will of God. It is
she who nourished Him, supported Him, brought Him up and the sacrificed Him for
us.
Oh, admirable and incomprehensible dependence of God, which the Holy Ghost could
not pass over in silence in the Gospel, although He has hidden from us, by His
revelation of that at least, to understand something of its excellence and
infinite glory! Jesus Christ gave more glory to God the Father by submission to
His Mother during those thirty years than He would have given Him in converting
the whole world by the working of the most stupendous miracles. Oh, how highly
we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the
example of Jesus Christ, our sole Exemplar!
19. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord's life, we shall see that
it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the
womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth, but it was by Mary's word. No sooner had she
spoken than John was sanctified; and this was His first miracle of grace.
At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary's
humble prayer; and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued
His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.
20. God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God - that is to say, not producing
another Divine Person - is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was
with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece, which is God made
Man, and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the
predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head. This is the
reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable
spouse in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus
Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.
21. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His
fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself. For inasmuch as He is God, He has the
same fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the Father and the Son; only He
does not bring it into action, as He does not produce another Divine Person. But
what we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of the Blessed Lady,
though He had no absolute need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into action, by
producing in her and by her Jesus Christ and His members - a mystery of grace
unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians.
Mary is necessary to God in the sanctification of souls
Article Two
22. The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to
pursue in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still
pursue daily, in an invisible manner, throughout the whole Church; and They
still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus
Christ.
23. God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea
(mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary (Maria).
This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has
of beauty and splendour, or rarity and preciousness, including even His own Son:
and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named
the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich.
24. God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired by His life
and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues; and He has made
her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by
her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His
virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His Mysterious canal; she is His
aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly.
25. To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His
unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He
possesses, in such wise that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she
wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gifts to men
which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will
of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary; so that she
who, impoverished, humbled, and who hid herself even unto the abyss of
nothingness by her profound humility her whole life long, should now be enriched
and exalted and honoured by the Most High. Such are the sentiments of the Church
and the holy Fathers.
26. If I were speaking to the freethinkers of these times, I would prove what I
said so simply here, drawing out in more length, and confirming it by the Holy
Scriptures and the Fathers, quoting the original passages, and adducing various
solid reasons, which may be seen at length in the book of Father Poire, La
Triple Couronnr de la Ste. Vierge.
But as I speak particularly to the poor and
simple, who being of good will, and having more faith than the common run of
scholars, believe more simply and more meritoriously, I content myself with
stating the truth quite plainly, without stopping to quote the Latin passages,
which they would not understand. Nevertheless, without making such research, I
shall not fail to bring forward some of them from time to time. But now let us
go on with our subject.
27. Inasmuch as grace perfects nature, and glory perfects grace, it is certain
that Our Lord is still, in Heaven, as much as the Son of Mary as He was on
earth; and that, consequently, He has retained the obedience and submission of
the most perfect Child toward the best of all mothers.
But we must take great
pains not to conceive this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus
Christ. For Mary is infinitely below her Son, who is God, and therefore she does
not command Him as a mother here below would command her child who is below her.
Mary, being altogether transformed into God's grace and by the glory which
transforms all the saints into Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing
contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God.
When we read then in the writings of St.s Bernard, Bernadine, Bonaventure and others that in Heaven and on earth everything, even God Himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which God has been well pleased to give her is so great that it seems as if she had the same power as God; and that her prayers and
petitions are so powerful with God that they always pass for commandments with
His Majesty, who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is
always humble and conformed to His will.
If Moses, by the force of his prayer, stayed the anger of God against the
Israelites in a manner so powerful that the most high and infinitely merciful
Lord, being unable to resist Him, told him to let Him alone that He might be
angry with and punish that rebellious people, what we must not, with much
greater reason, think of the prayer of the humble Mary, that worthy Mother of
God, which is more powerful with His Majesty than the prayers and
intercession of all the angels and saints both in Heaven and on earth?
28. In the Heavens Mary commands the angels and the blessed. As a recompense for
her profound humility, God has empowered her and commissioned her to fill with
the saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride.
The
will of the Most High, who exalts the humble (Lk. 1:52), is that Heaven, earth
and Hell bend, with good will or bad will, to the commandments of the humble
Mary, whom He has made sovereign of Heaven and earth, general of His armies,
treasurer of His treasures, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest
marvels. restorer of the human race, Mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the
enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and triumphs.
29. God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the
world; and He speaks to her these words: "Dwell in Jacob" (Ecclus. 24:13); that
is to say: Make your dwelling and residence in my predestined children,
prefigured by Jacob, and not in the reprobate children of the devil, prefigured
by Esau.
30. Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a
father and mother, so in the supernatural generation there are a Father, who is
God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate,
have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. he who has not Mary for his
Mother has not God for his Father. This is the reason why the reprobate, such as
heretics, schismatics and others, who hate our Blessed Lady or regard her with
contempt and indifference, have not God for their Father, however much they
boast of it, simply because they have not Mary for their Mother.
For if they had
her for their Mother, they would love and honour her as a true child naturally
loves and honours the mother who has given him life.
The most infallible and indubitable sign by which we may distinguish a heretic,
a man of bad doctrine, a reprobate, from one of the predestinate, is that the
heretic and the reprobate have nothing but contempt and indifference for Our
Lady, endeavoring by their words and examples to diminish the worship and love
of her, openly or hiddenly, and sometimes by misrepresentation. Alas! God the
Father has not told Mary to dwell in them, for they are Esaus.
31. God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself
in His members every day, by His dear Mother, and He says to her: "Take Israel
for your inheritance." (Ecclus. 24:13). It is as if He had said: God the Father
has given Me for an inheritance all the nations of the earth, all men, good and
bad, predestinate and reprobate.
The ones I will lead with a rod of gold, and
the others with a rod of iron. Of the ones, I will be the Father and the
Advocate; of the others, the Just Punisher; and of all, the Judge. But as for
you, My dear Mother, you shall have for your heritage and possession only the
predestinate, prefigured by Israel; and as their Mother, you shall bring them
forth and take care of them; and as their sovereign, you shall conduct them,
govern them and protect them.
32. "This man and that man is born in her" (Ps. 86:5), says he Holy Ghost
through the Royal Psalmist. According to the explanation of some of the Fathers,
the first man that is born in Mary is the Man-God, Jesus Christ; the second is a
mere man, the child of God and Mary by adoption. If Jesus Christ, the Head of
men, is born in her, then the predestinate, who are the members of that Head,
ought also to be born in her, by necessary of consequence.
One and the same
mother does not bring forth into the world the head without the members, or the
member without the head; for this would be a monster of nature. So in like
manner, in order of grace, the head and the members are born of one and the same
Mother; and if a member of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ - that is to say,
one of the predestinate - were born of any other mother than Mary, who has
produced the Head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of
Jesus Christ, but simply a monster in the order of grace.
33. Besides this, Jesus being present as much as ever the fruit of Mary - as
Heaven and earth repeat thousands and thousands of times a day, "and blessed is
the fruit of they womb, Jesus" - it is certain that Jesus Christ is, for each
man particular who possesses Him, as truly the fruit and the work of Mary as He
is for the whole world in general; so that if any one of the faithful has Jesus
Christ formed in his heart, he can say boldly, "All thanks be to Mary!
What I possess is her effect and her fruit, and without her I should never have had
it." We can apply to her more than St. Paul applied to himself the words: "I am
in labour again with all the children of God, until Jesus Christ my Son be
formed in them in the fullness of His age." (Cf. Gal. 4:19).
St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms
that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of
God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they
are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother until
she has brought them up forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of
their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just. O mystery of grace,
unknown to the reprobate, and but little known even to the predestinate!
34. God the Holy Ghost wishes to form elect for Himself in her and by her, and
He says to her:" Strike the roots," My Well-beloved and My Spouse, "of all your
virtues in My elect" (Ecclus. 24:13), in order that they may grow from virtue to
virtue and from grace to grace. I took so much complacence in you when you lived
on earth in the practice of the most sublime virtues, that I desire still to
find you on earth, without tour ceasing to be in Heaven.
For his end, reproduce
yourself in My elect, that I may behold in them with complacence the roots of
your invincible faith, of your profound humility, of your universal
mortification, of your sublime prayer, of your ardent charity, of your firm hope
and of all your virtues. You are always My spouse, as faithful, as pure and as
fruitful as ever. Let your faith give Me My faithful, your purity, My Virgins,
and your fertility, My temples and My elect.
35. When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of
grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who
never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness.
Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has
been or ever will be - a God-Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest
saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of
the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her.
For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can reproduce, in union
with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things.
36. When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there.
He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul
abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay,
one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not do startling wonders in
our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His
faithful and inseparable spouse. I say "inseparable" spouse, because since that
Substantial Love of the Father and the Son has espoused Mary, in order to
produce Jesus Christ, the Head of the elect, And Jesus Christ in the elect, He
has never repudiated her, because she has always been fruitful and faithful.
Consequences.
1. Mary is Queen of All Hearts
37. we may evidently conclude, then, from what I have said, first of all, that
Mary has received from God a great domination over souls of the elect; for she
cannot make her residence in them as God the Father ordered her to do, and, as
their mother, form, nourish and bring them forth to eternal life, and have them
as her inheritance and portion, and form them in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ
in them, and strike the roots of her virtues in their hearts and be the
inseparable companion of the Holy Ghost in all His works of grace - she cannot,
I say, do all these things unless she has a right and a domination over their
souls by a singular grace of the Most High, who, having given her power over His
only and natural Son, has given it also to her over His adopted children, not
only as to their bodies, which would be but a small matter, but also as to their
souls.
38. Mary is the Queen of Heaven and earth by grace, as Jesus is King of them by
nature and by conquest. Now, as the kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally
in the heart or the interior of man - according to the words, "The kingdom of
God is within you" (Lk. 17:21) - in like manner the kingdom of our Blessed Lady
is principally in the interior of man; that is to say, his soul. And it is
principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible
creatures, and so we can call her, as the saints do, the Queen of All Hearts.
2. Mary is necessary to men.
39. In the second place we must conclude that, the most holy Virgin being
necessary to God by a necessity which we call "hypothetical," in consequence of
His will, she is far more necessary to men, in order that they may attain their
last end. We must not confuse devotion to the Blessed Virgin with devotions to
the other saints, as if devotion to her were not far more necessary than a
devotion to them, and as if devotion to her were a matter of supererogation.
3.Mary is Necessary to all men to attain salvation.
40. The learned and pious Jesuit, Suarez, the erudite and devout Justus
Lipsius, doctor of Louvain, and many others have proved invincibly, from the
sentiments of the Fathers (among others, St. Augustine, St. Ephrem, deacon of
Edessa, St Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John
Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas and St.
Bonaventure), that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and
that (even heretics) it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem
and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark
of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.
41. The figures and words of the Old and New Testaments prove this. The
sentiments and the examples of the saints confirm it. Reason and experience
teach and demonstrate it. Even the devil and his crew, constrained by the force
of truth, have often been obliged to avow it in spite of themselves. Among all
the passages of the holy Fathers and Doctors, of which I have made an ample
collection in order to prove this truth, I shall for brevity's sake quote but
one: "To be devout to you, Holy Virgin," says St. John Damascene, "is an arm of
salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save."
42. I could bring forward here many anecdotes which prove the same thing, an
among others one which is related in the chronicles of St. Francis. This same
saint saw in ecstasy a great ladder ascending into Heaven, at the top of which
stood the Blessed Virgin and by which it was shown him he must ascend to reach
Heaven. There is another related in the chronicles of St. Dominic.
There was an
unfortunate heretic near Carcassonne, where St. Dominic was preaching the
Rosary, who was possessed by a legion of fifteen thousand devils. These evil
spirits were compelled, to their confusion, by the command of our Blessed Lady,
to avow many great and consoling truths touching devotion to the Blessed Virgin;
and they did this with so much force and so much clearness that it is impossible
to read this authentic account and the eulogy to the most holy Virgin Mary,
without shedding tears of joy, however lukewarm we may be in our devotion to
her.
4. Still more necessary to those called to a special perfection.
43. If devotion to the most holy Virgin Mary is necessary to all men simply for
working out their salvation, it is still more so for those who are called to any
special perfection; and I do not think anyone can acquire an intimate union with
Our Lord and a perfect fidelity to the Holy Ghost without a very great union
with the most holy Virgin, and a great dependence on her assistance.
44. It is Mary alone who has found grace before God (Lk. 1:30) without the aid
of any other mere creature; it is only through her that all those who have since
found grace before God have found it at all; and it is only through her that all
those who shall come afterward shall find it. She was full of grace when she was
greeted by the Archangel Gabriel (Lk. 1:28), and she was superabundantly filled
with grace by the Holy Ghost when He covered her with His unspeakable shadow
(Lk. 1:35); and she was so augmented this double plenitude from day to day and
from moment to moment that she has reached a point of grace immense and
inconceivable - in such wise that the Most High has made her the sole treasurer
of His treasures and the sole dispenser of His graces to ennoble, to exalt and
to enrich whom she wishes; to give entry to whom she wills into the narrow way
of Heaven; to bring whom she wills, and in spite of all obstacles, through the
narrow gate of life; and to give the throne, the scepter and the crown of king
to whom she wills. Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary,
and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree who bears the Fruit of Life, and the
true Mother who produces it.
45. It is Mary alone to whom Goad has given the keys of the cellars (Cant. 1:3)
of divine love and the power to enter into the sublime and secret ways of
perfection, and the power likewise to make others enter in there also. It is
Mary alone who has given the miserable children of Eve, the faithless, entry
into the terrestrial paradise; that they may walk there agreeably with God, hide
there securely against their enemies, feed themselves there deliciously, without
further fear of death, on the fruit of the trees of life and of the knowledge of
good and evil, and drink in long draughts the heavenly waters of that fair
fountain which gushes forth there with abundance; or rather, since she is
herself that terrestrial paradise, that virgin and blessed earth from which Adam
and Eve, the sinners, have been driven, she gives no entry there except to those
whom it is her pleasure to make saints.
46. All the rich among the people, to make use of an expression of the Holy
Ghost (Ps. 44:13) according to the explanation of St. Bernard - all the rich
among the people shall supplicate her face from age to age, and particularly at
the end of the world; that is to say, the greatest saints, the souls richest in
graces and virtues, shall be the most assiduous in praying to our Blessed Lady,
and in having her always present as their perfect model for imitation an their
powerful aid for help.
5. Especially necessary to the great saints of the latter times.
47. I have said that this would come to pass, particularly, because the Most
High with His holy Mother has to form for Himself great saints who shall surpass
most of the other saints in sanctity as much as the cedars of Lebanon outgrow
the little shrubs, as has been revealed to a holy soul whose life has been
written by M. de Renty.
48. These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match
themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they
shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light,
strengthened with her nourishment, led by her spirit, supported by her arm and
sheltered under her protection, so that they shall fight with one hand and build
with the other.
With the one hand they shall fight, overthrow and crush the
heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters,
with their idolatries and the sinners with their impieties. With the other hand
they shall build (Esd. 4:7) the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city
of God, that is to say, the most holy Virgin, called by the Fathers the "Temple
of Solomon" and the "City of God." By their words and their examples they shall
draw the whole world to true devotion to Mary. This shall bring upon them many
enemies, but shall also bring many victories and much glory for God alone. This
is what God revealed to St. Vincent Ferrer, the great apostle of his age, as he
has sufficiently noted in one of his works.
This is what the Holy Ghost seems to have prophesied in the Fifty-eighth Psalm:
"And they shall know that God will rule Jacob and all the ends of the earth;
they shall return at evening and shall suffer hunger like dogs and shall go
round about the city." (Ps. 58:14-15). This city which men shall find at the end
of the world to convert themselves in, and to satisfy the hunger they have for
justice, is the most holy Virgin, who is called by the Holy Ghost the "City of
God." (Ps. 86:3).
Providential function of Mary in the latter times
Article Three
49. It was through Mary that the salvation of the world begun, and it is through
Mary that it must be consummated. Mary hardly appeared at all in the first
coming of Jesus Christ, in order that men, as yet but little instructed and
enlightened on the Person of her Son, should not remove themselves from Him in
attaching themselves too strongly and too grossly to her. This would have
apparently taken place if she had been known, because of the admiral charms
which the Most High had bestowed even upon her exterior.
This is so true that
St. Denis the Areopagite tells us in his writings that when he saw our Blessed
Lady he would have taken her for a divinity, because of her secret charms and
incomparable beauty, had not the faith in which he was well established taught
him the contrary. But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary has to be made
known and revealed by the Holy Ghost in order that, through her, Jesus Christ
may be known, loved and served. The reasons which move the Holy Ghost to hide
His spouse during her life, and to reveal her but very little since the
preaching of the Gospel, subsist no longer.
5. Existence of This Function and Reasons for It
50. God, then, wishes to reveal and make known Mary, the master price of His
hands, in these latter times:
1. Because she hid herself in this world and put herself lower than the dust by
her profound humility, having obtained from God and from His Apostles and
Evangelists that she should not be made manifest.
2. Because, as she is the masterpiece of the hands of God, He wishes to be
glorified and praised in her by those who are living upon the earth.
3. As she is the dawn which precedes and reveals the Sun of Justice, who is
Jesus Christ, he must be seen and recognized in order that Jesus Christ may also
be.
4. Being the way by which Jesus came to us he first time, she will also be the
way by which He will come the second time, though not in the same manner.
5. Being the sure means and the straight and immaculate way to go to Jesus
Christ and to find Him perfectly, it is by her that the souls who are to shine
forth especially in sanctity have to find Our Lord. He who shall find Mary shall
find life (Prov. 8:35), that is, Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the
Life. (Jn. 14:6). But no one can find Mary who does not seek her; and no one can
seek her who does not know her; for we cannot seek or desire an unknown object.
It is necessary, then, for the greater knowledge and glory of the Most Holy
Trinity, that Mary should be more than ever known.
6. Mary must same forth more than ever in mercy, in might and in grace, in these
latter times: in mercy, to bring back and lovingly receive the poor strayed
sinners who shall be converted and shall return to the Catholic Church; in
might, against the enemies of God, idolaters, schismatics, Mahometans, Jews and
souls hardened in impiety, who shall rise in terrible revolt against God to
seduce all those who shall oppose them and to make them fall by promises and
threats; and finally, she must shine forth in grace, in order to animate and
sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ, who shall
battle for His interests.
7. And lastly, Mary must be terrible to the devil and his crew, as an army
ranged in battle, principally in these latter times, because the devil, knowing
that he has but little time, and now less than ever, to destroy souls, will
every day redouble his efforts and his combats. He will presently raise up cruel
persecutions and will put terrible fares before the faithful servants and true
children of Mary, whom it gives him more trouble to conquer than it does to
conquer others.
6. Exercise of This Function
1. In the struggle against Satan.
51. It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which
shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to
understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of God pronounced in
the terrestrial paradise against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain
this here for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her
children and for the confusion of the devil: "I will put enmities between thee
and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou
shalt lie in wait for her heel," (Gen. 3:15).
52. God has never made and formed but one enmity but it is an irreconcilable
one, which shall endure and grow to the end. It is between Mary, His worthy
Mother, and the devil - between the children and the servants of the Blessed
Virgin, and the children and tools of Lucifer. The most terrible of all the
enemies which God has set up against the devil is His holy Mother Mary.
He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise - though she existed
then only in His idea - with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God,
with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that of that ancient serpent,
with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious
rebel, that he fears her not only more than all the angels and men, but in a
sense more than God Himself.
Not that the anger, the hatred and the power of God
are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin, for the perfections
of Mary are limited; but first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely
more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and
her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and secondly, because God
has given Mary such great power against the devils that - as they have often
been obliged to confess, in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the possessed
- they fear one of her sighs for a soul more than the payers of all the saints,
and one of her threats against them more than all other torments.
53. What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has gained by humility. What Eve was
damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedience. Eve, in obeying
the serpent, has destroyed all her children together with herself, and has
delivered them to him; Mary, in being perfectly faithful to God, has saved all
her children and servants together with herself, and has consecrated them to His
Majesty.
54. God has not only set an enmity, but enmities not simply between Mary and the
devil, but between the race of the holy Virgin and the race of the devil; that
is to say, God has set enmities, antipathies and secret hatreds between the true
children and servants of Mary and the children and the slaves of the devil. They
have no love for each other. They have no sympathy for each other. The children
of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world ( for it is the same
thing) have always up to this time persecuted those who belong to our Blessed
Lady, and will in the future persecute them more than ever; just as Cain, of
old, persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob, who are the
figures of the reprobate and the predestinate.
But the humble Mary will always
have the victory over that proud spirit, and so great a victory that she will go
so far as to crush his head, where his pride swells. She will always discover
the malice of the serpent. She will always lay bare his infernal plots and
dissipate his diabolical councils, and even to the end of time will guard her
faithful servants from his cruel claw.
But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the
latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say,
her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war
against him. They shall be little and poor in the world's esteem, and abased
before all like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by
other members of the body.
But in return for this they shall be rich in the
grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall be
great and exalted before God in sanctity, superior to all other creatures by
their lively zeal, and so well sustained with God's assistance that, with the
humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the
devil and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.
2. In the formation of the apostles of the latter times.
55. In a word, God wishes that His holy Mother should be at present more known,
more loved, more honoured than she has ever been. This, no doubt, will take
place if the predestinate enter, with the grace and and light of the Holy Ghost,
into the interior and perfect practice which I will disclose to them shortly.
Then they will see clearly, as far as faith allows, that beautiful Star of the
Sea. They will arrive happily in harbour, following its guidance, in spite of
the tempest and the pirates.
They will know the grandeurs of that Queen, and
will consecrate themselves entirely to her service as subjects and slaves of
love. They will experience her sweetness and her maternal goodness, and they
will love her tenderly like well-beloved children. They will know the mercies of
which she is full, and the need they have of her help; and they will have full
recourse to her in all things, as to their dear advocate and Mediatrix with
Jesus Christ. They will know what is surest, the easiest, the shortest and the
most perfect means of going to Jesus Christ; and they will give themselves to
Mary, body and soul, without reserve, that they may thus belong entirely to
Jesus Christ.
56. But who shall those servants, slaves and children of Mary be?
They shall be the ministers of the Lord who, like a burning fire, shall kindle
the fire of divine love everywhere.
They shall be "like sharp arrows in the hand of the powerful" Mary to pierce her
enemies. (Ps. 126:4).
They shall be the sons of Levi, well purified by the fire of great tribulation,
and closely adhering to God (1 Cor. 6:17), who shall carry the gold of love in
their heart, the incense of prayer in their spirit, and the myrrh of
mortification in their body. They shall be everywhere the good odour of Jesus
Christ to the poor and to the little, while at the same time, they shall be an
odour of death to the great, to the rich and to the proud worldlings.
57. They shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least
breath of the Holy Ghost; who, detaching themselves from everything and
troubling themselves with nothing, shall shower forth the rain of the Word of
God and of life eternal. They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm
against the world; shall pierce through and through, for life or for death, with
their two-edged sword of the Word of God (Eph. 6:17), all those to whom they
shall be sent on the part of the Most High.
58. They shall be the true apostles of the latter times, to whom the Lord of
Hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels and to carry off with
glory the spoils of His enemies. They shall sleep without gold or silver, and,
what is more, without care, in the midst of the other priests, ecclesiastics,
and clerics (Ps. 67:14); and yet they shall have he silvered wings of the dove
to go, with the pure intention of the glory of God and the salvation of souls,
wheresoever the Holy Ghost shall call them. Nor shall they leave behind them, in
the places where they have preached, anything but the gold of charity, which is
the fulfillment of the whole law. (Rom. 13:10).
59. In a word, we know that they shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ,
walking in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the world,
charity; teaching the narrow way of God in pure truth, according to the holy
Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world; troubling themselves about
nothing; not accepting persons; sparing, fearing and listening to no mortal,
however influential he may be. They shall have in their mouths the two-edged
sword of the Word of God. They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody
standard of the Cross, the Crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their
left, the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the modesty and
mortification of Jesus Christ in their own behaviour.
These are the great men who are to come; but Mary is the one who, by order of
the Most High, shall fashion them for the purpose of extending His empire over
that of the impious, the idolaters and the Mahometans. But when and how shall
this be? God alone knows.
As for us, we have to but hold our tongues, to pray, to sigh and to wait: "With
expectation I have waited." (Ps. 39:2).
Fundamental truths of devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Chapter Two
60. Having spoken thus far of the necessity of devotion to the most holy Virgin,
I must now show in what this devotion consists. This I will do, with God's help,
after I shall first laid down some fundamental truths which shall throw light on
that grand and solid devotion which I desire to disclose.
Jesus Christ is the last end of devotion to Mary
First Truth
61. Jesus Christ our Saviour, true God and true Man, ought to be the last end of
all our other devotions, else they are false and delusive. Jesus Christ is the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, of all things. We labour not, as
the Apostles says, except to render every man perfect in Jesus Christ; because
it is in Him alone that the whole plenitude of the Divinity dwells together with
all the other plenitude of graces, virtues and perfections.
It is in Him alone
that we have been blessed with all spiritual benediction; and He is our only
Master, who has to teach us; our only Lord on whom we ought to depend; our only
Head to whom we must be united; our only Model to whom we should conform
ourselves; our only Physician who can heal us; our only Shepherd who can feed
us; our only Way who can lead us; our only Truth whom we must believe; our only
Life who can animate us; and our only All in things who can satisfy us.
There has been no other name given under Heaven, except the name of Jesus, by which we can be saved. God has laid no other foundation of our salvation, our perfection
or our glory, than Jesus Christ. Every building which is not built on that firm
rock is founded upon the moving sand, and sooner or latter infallibly will fall.
Every one of the faithful who is not united to Him, as a branch to the stock of
the vine, shall fall, shall wither, and shall be fit only to be cast into the
fire. Outside of Him there exists nothing but error, falsehood, iniquity
futility, death and damnation.
But if we are in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is
in us, we have no condemnation to fear. Neither the angels of Heaven nor the men
f earth nor the devils of Hell nor any other creature can injure us; because
they cannot separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. By Jesus
Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, we can do all things; we can render
all honour and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, we can become
perfect ourselves, and be to our neighbour a good odour of eternal life. (2 Cor.
2:15-16).
62. If, then, we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to
establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and
secure means for finding Jesus Christ. If devotion to Our Lady removed us from
Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil; but so
far from this being the case, devotion to Our Lady is, on the contrary,
necessary for us - as I have already shown, and will show still further
hereafter - as a means of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him
tenderly, of serving Him faithfully.
63. I here turn for one moment to Thee, O sweet Jesus, to complain lovingly to
Thy Divine Majesty that the greater part of Christians, even the most learned,
do not know the necessary union there is between Thee and Thy holy Mother. Thou,
Lord, art always with Mary, and Mary is always with Thee, and she cannot be
without The, else she would cease to be what she is. She is so transformed into
Thee by grace that she lives no more, she is though she were not.
It is Thou
only, my Jesus, who livest and reignest in her more perfectly than in all the
angels and the blessed. Ah! If we knew the glory an the love which Thou receives
in this admirable creature, we should have very different thoughts both of Thee
and her from what we have now. She is so intimately united with Thee that it
were easier to separate the light from the sun, the heat from the fire; nay, it
were easier to separate from Thee all the angels and the saints than the divine
Mary, because she loves Thee more ardently and glorifies Thee more perfectly
than all the other creatures put together.
64. After that, my sweet Master, is it not an astonishingly pitiable thing to
see the ignorance and the darkness of all men here below in regard to Thy holy
Mother? I speak not so much of idolaters and pagans, who, knowing Thee not, care
not to know her. I speak not even of heretics and schismatics, who care not to
be devout to Thy holy Mother, being separated as they are from Thee and Thy holy
Church; but I speak of Catholic Christians, and even of doctors among Catholics,
who make profession of teaching truths to others, and yet know not Thee nor Thy
holy Mother, except in a speculative, dry, barren and indifferent manner.
These gentleman speak but rarely of Thy holy Mother and of the devotion we ought to
have to her, because they fear, so they say, lest we should abuse it, and do
some injury to Thee in honouring Thy holy Mother too much. If they hear or see
anyone devout to our Blessed Lady, speaking often of his devotion to that good
Mother in a tender, strong and persuasive way, and as a secure means without
delusion, as a short road without danger, as an immaculate way without
imperfection, and as a wonderful secret for finding and loving Thee perfectly,
they cry out against him, and give him a thousand false reasons by way of
proving to him that he ought not to talk so much of our Blessed Lady; that there
are great abuses in that devotion; and that we must direct our energies to
destroy these abuses, and to speak of Thee, rather than to incline the people to
devotion to our Blessed Lady, whom they already love sufficiently.
We hear them sometimes speak of devotion to our Blessed Lady, not for the
purpose of establishing it and persuading men to embrace it, but to destroy the
abuses which are made of it; and all the while these teachers are without piety
or tender devotion toward Thyself, simply because they have none for Mary. They
regard the Rosary and the Scapular as devotions proper for weak and ignorant
minds, without which men can save themselves; and if there falls into their
hands any poor client of Our Lady who says his Rosary, or has any other practice
of devotion toward her, they soon change his spirit and his heart. Instead of
the Rosary, they counsel him the seven Penitential Psalms. Instead of devotion
to the holy Virgin, they counsel, him devotion to Jesus Christ.
O my sweet Jesus, do these people have Thy spirit? Do they please Thee in acting
thus? Does it please Thee when, for fear of displeasing Thee, we neglect doing
our utmost to please Thy Mother? Does devotion to Thy holy Mother hinder
devotion to Thyself? Does she attribute to herself the honour we pay her? Does
she head a faction of her own? Is she a stranger who has no connection with
Thee? Does it displease Thee that we should try to please her? Do we separate or
alienate ourselves from Thy love by giving ourselves to her and honouring her?
65. Yet, my sweet Master, the greater part of the learned could not discourage
devotion to Thy holy Mother more, and could not show more indifference to it,
even if all that I have just said were true. Thus they have been punished for
their pride! Keep me, Lord, keep me from their sentiments and their practices,
and give me some share of the sentiments of gratitude, esteem, respect and love
which Thou hast in regard to Thy holy Mother, so that the more I imitate and
follow her, the more I may love and glorify Thee.
66. So, as if up to this point I had still said nothing in honour of Thy holy
Mother, "give me now the grace to praise Thee worthily," in spite of a;; her
enemies, who are Thine as well; and grant me to say loudly with the saints, "Let
not that man presume to look for the mercy of God who offends His holy Mother."
67. Make me love Thee ardently, so that I may obtain of Thy mercy a true
devotion to Thy holy Mother, and inspire the whole earth with it; and for that
end, receive the burning prayer which I offer to Thee with St. Augustine and Thy
other true friends: "Thou art Christ, my holy Father, my tender God, my great
King, my good Shepherd, my one Master, my best Helper, my most Beautiful and my
Beloved, my living Bread, my Priest forever, my Leader to my country, my true
Light, my holy Sweetness, my straight Way, my excellent Wisdom, my pure
Simplicity, my pacific Harmony, my whole Guard, my good Portion, my everlasting
Salvation.
"Christ Jesus, my sweet Lord, why have I ever loved why in my whole life have I
ever desired anything except Thee, Jesus my God? Where was I when I was not in
Thy mind with Thee? Now, from this time forth, do ye, all my desires, grow hot,
and flow upon the Lord Jesus; run, ye have been tardy thus far; hasten whither
ye are going; seek whom ye are seeking. O Jesus, may he who loves Thee not, be
anathema; may he who loves Thee not, be filled with bitterness!
"O sweet Jesus, may every good feeling that is fitted for Thy praise, love Thee,
delight in Thee, admire Thee. God of my heart and my Portion, Christ Jesus, may
my heart faint away in spirit and mayest Thou be my life within me! may the live
coal of Thy love grow hot within my spirit, and break forth into a perfect fire;
may it burn incessantly on the altar of my heart; may it glow in my innermost
being; may it blaze in hidden recesses of my soul; and in the day of my
consummation, may I be found consummated with Thee. Amen."
We belong to Jesus and mary as their slaves
Second Truth
68. We must conclude, from what Jesus Christ is with regard to us, as the
Apostles says (1 Cor. 6:19-20), we do not belong to ourselves but are entirely
His, as His members and His slaves, whom He has bought at an infinitely dear
price, the price of all His Blood. Before Baptism we belonged to the devil, as
his slaves; but Baptism has made us true slaves of Jesus Christ, who have no
right to live, to work, or to die, except to bring forth fruit for that God-Man
(Rom. 7:4); to glorify Him in our bodies and to let Him reign in our souls,
because we are His conquest, His acquired people and His inheritance.
It is for the same reason that the Holy Ghost compares us:(1) to trees planted along the
waters of grace, in the field of the Church, who ought to bring forth their
fruit in their seasons; (2) to be the branches of a vine of which Jesus Christ
is the stock, and which must yield good graces; (3) to a flock of which Jesus
Christ is the Shepherd, and which is to multiply and give milk; (4) to a good
land of which God is the Husbandman, in which the seed multiplies itself and
brings forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. (Ps. 1:3; Jn. 15:2; 10:11;
Matt. 13:8).
Jesus Christ cursed the unfruitful fig tree( Matt. 21:19), and
pronounced sentence against the useless servant who had not made any profit on
his talent. (Matt. 25:24-30). All this proves to us that Jesus Christ wishes to
receive some fruits from our wretched selves, namely our good works, because
those works belong to Him alone: "Created in good works, in Christ Jesus" (eph.
2:10) - which words of the Holy Ghost show that Jesus Christ is the sole
beginning, and ought to be the sole end, of all our good works, and also that we
ought to serve Him, not as servants for wages, but as slaves of love. I will
explain what I mean.
69. Here on earth there are two ways of belonging to another and of depending n
his authority: namely, simple service and slavery, whence we derive the words
"servant" and "slave".
By common service among Christians a man engages himself to serve another during
a certain time, at a certain rate of wages or of recompense.
By slavery a man is entirely dependent on another during his whole life, and
must serve his master without claiming any wages or reward, just as one of his
beasts, over which he has the right of life and death.
70. There are three sorts of slavery: a slavery of nature, a slavery of
constraint and a slavery of will. All creatures are slaves of God in the first
sense: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Ps. 23:1); the demons
and the damned are slaves in the second sense; the just and the saints in the
third. Because by slavery of the will we make choice of God and His service
above all things, even though nature did not oblige us to do so, slavery of the
will is the most perfect and most glorious to God, who beholds the heart (1 Kg.
16:7), claims the heart (Prov. 23:26), and calls Himself the God of the heart
(Ps. 72:26), that is, of the loving will.
71. There is an entire difference between a servant and a slave:
1. A servant does not give all he is, all he has and all he can acquire, by
himself or by another, to his master; but the slave gives himself whole and
entire to his master, all he has and all he can acquire, without any exception.
2. The servant demands wages for the services which he performs for his master;
but the slave can demand nothing, whatever assiduity, whatever industry,
whatever energy he may have at his work.
3. The servant can leave his master when he pleases, or at least when the time
of his service expires; but the slave has no right to quit his master at will.
4. The master of the servant has no right of life and death over him, so that if
he should kill him like one of his beasts of burden, he would commit an unjust
homicide; but the master of the slave has by law a right of life and death over
him, so that he may sell him to anybody he likes, or kill him as if he stood on
the same level as one of his horses.
5. Lastly, the servant is only for a time in his master's service; the slave,
always.
72. There is nothing among men which makes us belong to another more than
slavery. There is nothing among Christians which makes us more absolutely belong
to Jesus Christ and His holy Mother than the slavery of the will, according to
the example of Jesus Christ Himself, who took on Himself the form of a slave for
love of us (Phil. 2:7); and also according the example of the holy Virgin, who
called herself the servant and slave of the Lord. (Lk. 1:38).
The Apostle calls
himself, as by title of honour, "the slave of Christ." Christians are often so
called in the Holy Scriptures; and the word for the designation, "servus," as a
great man has truly remarked, signified in olden times as a slave in the
completest sense, because there were no servants then like those of the present
day. Masters were served only by slaves or freedmen. This is what the Catechism
of the holy Council of Trent, in order to leave no doubt about our being slaves
of Jesus Christ, expresses by an unequivocal term, in calling us Mancipa
Christi, "slaves of Jesus Christ."
73. Now that I have given these explanations, I say that we ought to belong to
Jesus Christ, and to serve Him not only as mercenary servants, but as loving
slaves who, as a result of their great love, give themselves up to serve Him in
the quality of slaves simply for the honour of belonging to Him. Before Baptism
we were the slaves of the devil. Baptism has made us the slaves of Jesus Christ:
Christians must needs be either the slaves of the devil or the slaves of Jesus
Christ.
74. What I say absolutely of Jesus Christ, I say relatively of Our Lady. Since
Jesus Christ chose her for the inseparable companion of His life, of His death,
of His glory and of His power in Heaven and upon earth, He gave her by grace,
relatively to His Majesty, all the same rights and privileges which He possesses
by nature. "All that is fitting to God by nature is fitting by Mary by grace,"
say the saints; so that, according to them, Mary and Jesus, having but the same
will and the same power, have also the same subjects, servants and slaves.
75. We may, therefore, following the sentiments of the saints and of many great
men, call ourselves and make ourselves the loving slaves of the most holy
Virgin, in order to be, by that very means, the more perfectly the slaves of
Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Lady is the means Our Lord made use of to come to us.
She is also the means which we must make use of to go to Him. For she is not
like all other creatures who, if we should attach ourselves to them, might
rather draw us away from God than draw us near Him.
The strongest inclination of Mary is to unite us to Jesus Christ, her Son; and the strongest inclination of the Son is that we should come to Him through His holy Mother. It is to honour and to please Him, just as it would be to do honour and pleasure to king to
become more perfectly his subject and his slave by making ourselves the slaves
of the queen. It is on this account that the holy Fathers, and St. Bonaventure
after them, say that Our Lady is the way to go to Our Lord: "The way of coming
to Christ is to draw near to her."
76. Moreover, if, as I have said, the holy Virgin is the Queen and Sovereign of
Heaven and Earth, has she not then as many subjects and slaves as there are
creatures? St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Bonaventure say: "All
things, the Virgin included, are subject to the empire of God: Behold, all
things, and God included, are subject to the empire of the Virgin." Is it not
reasonable that among so many slaves of constraint there should be some of love,
who of their own good will, in the quality of slaves, should choose Mary for
their Mistress? What!
Are men and devils to have their voluntary slaves, and
Mary to have none? What! Shall a king hold it to be for his honour that the
queen, his companion, should have slaves over whom she has the right of life and
death, because the honour and the power of the one is the honour and the power
of the other; and yet are we to think that Our Lord, who has the best of all
sons has divided His entire power with His holy Mother, shall take it ill that
she too has her slaves? Has He less respect and love for His Mother than
Ahasuerus had for Esther, or than Solomon had for Bathsheva? Who shall dare say
so, or even think so?
77. But whither is my pen hurrying me? Why am I stopping here to prove a things
so plain? If we do not wish to call ourselves slaves of the Blessed Virgin, what
matter? Let us make ourselves, and call ourselves, slaves of Jesus Christ; for
that is being the slave of the holy Virgin, inasmuch as Jesus is the fruit and
the glory of Mary; and it is this very thing which we do perfectly by the
devotion of which we are hereafter to speak.
We need Mary in order to die to ourselves
Third Truth
78. Our best actions are ordinarily stained and corrupted by our corrupt nature.
When we put clean, clear water into a vessel which has a foul and evil smell, or
wine into a cask the inside of which has been tainted by another wine which has
been it, the clear water and the good wine are spoilt, and readily take on the
bad odour. In like manner, when God puts into the vessel of our soul, spoilt by
original and actual sin, His graces and heavenly dews, or the delicious wine of
His love, His gifts are ordinarily spoilt and corrupted by the bad leaven and
the evil which sin has left within us. Our actions, even the most sublime and
virtuous, feel the effects of it.
It is therefore of great importance in the
acquiring of perfection - which, it must be remembered, is only acquired by
union with Jesus Christ - to rid ourselves of everything that is bad within us;
otherwise Our Lord, who is infinitely pure and hates infinitely the least stain
upon our souls, will not unite Himself to us, and will cast us out from His
presence.
79. To rid ourselves of self we must:
1. Thoroughly recognize, by the light of the Holy Ghost, our inward corruption,
our incapacity for every good thing useful for our salvation, our weakness in
all things, our inconstancy at all times, our unworthiness of every grace, and
our iniquity in every position. The sin of our first father has spoilt us all,
soured us, puffed us up and corrupted us, as he leaven sours, puffs up and
corrupts the dough into which it is out. The actual sins we have committed,
whether mortal or venial, pardoned though they may be, have nevertheless
increased our concupiscence, our weakness, our inconstancy and our corruption,
and have left evil remains in our souls.
Our bodies are so corrupted that they are called by the Holy Ghost bodies of sin
(Rom. 6:6), conceived in sin (Ps. 50:7), nourished in sin, and capable of all
sin - bodies subject to thousands of maladies, which go on corrupting from day
to day, and which engender nothing but disease, vermin and corruption.
Our soul, united to our body, has become so carnal that it is called flesh: "All
flesh having corrupted its way." (Gen. 6:12).
We have nothing for our portion
but pride and blindness of spirit, hardness of heart, weakness and inconstancy
of soul, concupiscence, revolted passions, and sicknesses in the body. We are
naturally prouder than peacocks, more groveling than toads, more vile than
unclean animals, more envious than serpents, more gluttonous than hogs, more
furious than tigers, lazier than tortoises, weaker than reeds, and more
capricious than weather cocks. We have within ourselves nothing but nothingness
and sin, and we deserve nothing but the anger of God and everlasting Hell.
80. After this, ought we to be astonished if Our Lord has said that whoever
wishes to follow Him must renounce himself and hate his own life, and that
whoever shall love his own life shall lose it, and whoever shall hate it, shall
save it? (Jn. 12:25). He who is infinite in Wisdom does not give commandments
without reason, and He has commanded us to hate ourselves only because we so
richly deserve to be hated. Nothing is worthier of love than God, and nothing is
worthier of hatred than ourselves.
81. 2. In order to rid ourselves of self, we must die ourselves daily. That is
to say, we must renounce the operations of the powers of our soul and the senses
of our body. We must see as if we saw not, understand as if we understood not,
and make use of the things of this world as if we made no use of them at all. (1
Cor. 7:29-31). This is what St. Paul calls dying daily. (1 Cor. 15:31). "Unless
the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone," and
bringeth forth no good fruit. (Jn. 12:24-25).
If we do not die to ourselves, and if our holiest devotions do not incline us to this necessary and useful death, we shall bring forth no fruit worth anything, and our devotions will become useless. All our good works will be stained by self-love and our own will; and this will cause God to hold in abomination the greatest sacrifices we can make and the best actions we can do; so that at our death we shall find our hands
empty of virtues and of merits and we shall not have one spark of pure love,
which is only communicated to souls dead to themselves, souls whose life is
hidden with Jesus Christ in God. (Col. 3:3).
82. 3. We must choose, therefore, among all the devotions to the Blessed Virgin,
the one which draws us most toward this death to ourselves, inasmuch as it will
be the best and most sanctifying. For we must not think that all that shines is
gold, that all that tastes sweet is honey, or that all that is easy to do and is
done by the greatest number is the most sanctifying.
As there are secrets of nature by which natural operations are performed more easily, in a short time and at little cost, so also are there secrets in the order of grace by which
supernatural operations, such as ridding ourselves of self, filling ourselves
with God, and becoming perfect, are performed more easily.
The practice which I am about to disclose is one of these secrets of grace,
unknown to the greater number of Christians, known even to a few of the devout,
and practice and relished by a lesser number still. But by way of beginning the
explanation of this practice, let us consider a fourth truth which is a
consequence of the third.
We need Mary as our Mediatrix with our Mediator, Jesus Christ
Fourth Truth
83. It is more perfect, because it is more humble, not to approach God of
ourselves without taking a mediator. Our nature, as I have just shown, is so
corrupt that if we rely on our own works, efforts and preparations in order to
reach God and please Him, it is certain that our good works will be defiled or
be of little weight before God in inducing Him to unite Himself to us and to
hear us. It is not without reason that God has given us mediators with His
Majesty.
He has seen our unworthiness and our incapacity; He has had pity on us;
and in order to give us access to His mercies, He has provided us with a
powerful intercessors with His Grandeur, so that to neglect these mediators, and
to draw near His Holiness directly, and without any recommendation, is to fail
in humility. It is to fail in respect toward God, so high and so holy. It is to
make less count of that King of Kings than we should make of a king or a prince
of this earth, whom we would not willingly approach without some friend to speak
for us.
84. Our Lord is our advocate and Mediator of redemption with God the Father. It
is through Him that we ought to pray, in union with the whole Church,
Triumphant, and Militant. It is through Him that we have access to the Majesty
of the Father, before whom we ought never to appear except sustained and clothed
with the merits of His Son, just as the young Jacob came before his father Isaac
in the skins of the kids to receive his blessing.
85. But have we no need if a mediator with the Mediator Himself? Is our purity
great enough to unite us directly to Him, and by ourselves? Is He not God, in
all things equal to His Father, and consequently the Holy of all Holies, as
worthy of respect as His Father? If through His infinite charity He has made
Himself our bail and our Mediator with God His Father, in order to appease Him
and to pay Him what we owed Him, are we, on that account, to have less respect
and less fear for His Majesty and His Sanctity?
Let us boldly say with St. Bernard that we have need of a mediator with the
Mediator Himself, and that it is the divine Mary who is the most capable of
filling that charitable office. It was through her that Jesus Christ came to us,
and it is through her that we must go to Him. If we fear to go directly to Jesus
Christ, our God, whether because of His infinite greatness or because our
vileness or because of our sins, let us boldly implore the aid and intercession
of Mary, our Mother. She is good, she is tender, she has nothing in her austere
and forbidding, nothing too sublime and too brilliant. In seeing her, we see our
pure nature.
She is not the sun, which by the brightness of its rays blinds us
because of our weakness; but she is fair and gentle as the moon (Cant. 6:9),
which receives the light of the sun, and tempers it to make it more suitable to
our capacity. She is so charitable that she repels none of those who ask her
intercession, no matter how great sinners they have been; for, as the saints
say, never has it been heard since the world was the world that anyone has
confidently and perseveringly had recourse to our Blessed Lady and yet has been
repelled.
She is so powerful that none of her petitions has ever been refused.
She has but to show herself before her Son to pray to Him, and straightaway He
grants her desires, lovingly vanquished by the prayers of the of His dearest
Mother, who bore Him and nourished Him.
86. All this is taken from St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure, so that according to
them, we have three steps to mount to go to God: the first, which is nearest to
us and the most suited to our capacity is Mary; the second is Jesus Christ; and
the third is God the Father. To go to Jesus, we must go to Mary; she is our
mediatrix of intercession. To go to God the Father, we must go to Jesus; for He
is our Mediator of redemption. Now the devotion that I am about to bring forward
observes this order perfectly.
We need Mary in order to preserve the graces and treasures we have received from God
Fifth Truth
87. It is very difficult, considering our weakness and frailty, to preserve in
ourselves the graces and treasures which we have received from God:
1. Because we have this treasure, which is worth more than Heaven and earth put
together, in frail vessels, i.e, in a corruptible body and in a weak and
inconstant soul, which a mere nothing disturbs and dejects: "We have this
treasure in earthen vessels." (2 Cor. 4:7).
88. 2. Because the devils, who are skilful thieves, wish to surprise us
unawares, and to strip us. They watch day and night for the favourable moment.
For that end they go around about us incessantly to devour us and to snatch from
us in one moment, by a sin, all the graces and merits we have gained for many
years. Their malice, their experience, their strategems and their number ought
to make us fear this misfortune immensely, especially when we see how many
persons fuller of grace than we are, richer in virtues, better founded in
experience and far higher exalted in sanctity, have been surprised, robbed and
unhappily pillaged. Ah!
How many cedars of Lebanon, how many stars of the firmament, have we not seen fall miserably, and in the twinkling of an eye lose all their height and their brightness! Whence comes that sad and curios change? It was not for want of grace which is wanting to no man; but is was for want of humility. They thought themselves capable of guarding their own treasures. They trusted in themselves, relied upon themselves. They thought their house secure enough, and their coffers strong enough, to keep the precious treasure of grace.
It is because of that scarcely perceptible reliance upon themselves, though all
the while it seemed to them that they were relying only on the grace of God,
that the most just Lord permitted them to be robbed by leaving them to
themselves. Alas!
If they had but known the admirable devotion which I shall
unfold presently, they would have confided their treasure to a Virgin powerful
and faithful, who would have kept it for them as if it had been her own
possession; nay, who would have even taken it as an obligation of justice on
herself to preserve it for them.
89. 3. It is difficult to preserve in justice because of the strange corruption
of the world. The world is now so corrupt it seems inevitable that religious
hearts should be soiled, if not by its mud, at least by its dust; so that it has
become a kind of miracle for anyone to remain in the midst of that impetuous
torrent without being drowned in it or stripped by the pirates and the corsairs,
in the midst of that pestilent air without being infected by it. It is the
Virgin, alone faithful, in whom the serpent has never had part, who works this
miracle for those who serve her in that sweet way which I have shortly to
unfold.
Choice of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Chapter Three
90. Having laid down these five truths, let us continue. Today, more than ever,
we must take pains in choosing true devotion to our Blessed Lady, because, more
than ever before, there are false devotions to our Blessed Lady which are easily
mistaken for true ones.
The devil, like a false coiner and a subtle and
experienced sharper, has already deceived and destroyed so many souls by a false
devotion to the Blessed Virgin that he makes a daily use of his diabolical
experience to plunge many others by this same way into everlasting perdition;
amusing them, alluring them, lulling them to sleep in sin, under the pretext of
some prayers badly said or some outward practices which he inspires.
As a false coiner does not ordinarily counterfeit anything but gold and silver, and very
rarely other metals, because they are not worth the trouble, so the evil spirit
does not for the most part counterfeit any other devotions, but only those to
Jesus and Mary - devotion to the Holy Communion and to our Blessed Lady -
because they are among other devotions what gold and silver are among other
metals.
91. It is then very important to recognize, first of all, false devotions to our
Blessed Lady, in order to avoid them, and true devotion, in order to embrace it;
secondly, which of the many practices of true devotion to our Blessed Lady is
the most perfect, the most agreeable to her, the most glorious to God, and the
most sanctifying for ourselves, so that we may adopt that one.
False devotions to the Blessed Virgin and false devotees
Article One
92. I find seven kinds of false devotees and false devotions to Our Lady,
namely: 1. the critical devotees; 2. the scrupulous devotees; 3. the external
devotees; 4. the presumptuous devotees; 5. the inconstant devotees; 6. the
hypocritical devotees; 7. the interested devotees.
1. Critical Devotees
93. The critical devotees are, for the most part, proud scholars, rash and
self-sufficient spirits, who have at heart some devotion to the holy Virgin, but
who criticize nearly all the practices of devotion which simple people pay
simply and holily to their good Mother, because these practices do not fall in
with their own humour and fancy. They call in doubt all the miracles and pious
stories recorded by authors worthy of faith, or drawn form the chronicles of
religious orders: narratives which testify to us the mercies and the power of
the most holy Virgin.
They cannot see, without uneasiness, simple and humble
people on their knees before an altar or an image of Our lady, sometimes at the
corner of a street, in order to pray to God there; and they even accuse them of
idolatry, as if they adored the wood or the stone. They say that, for their
part, they are not fond of these external devotions, and that they are not so
credulous as to believe so many tales and stories that are told about Our Lady.
When they are told how admirably the Fathers of the Church praised the Blessed
Virgin, they either reply that the Fathers spoke as professional orators, with
exaggeration; or they misinterpret their words.
These kinds of false devotees and of proud and worldly people are greatly fared.
They do an infinite wrong to the devotion to Our Lady; and they are but too
successful in alienating people from it, under the pretext of destroying its
abuses.
II. Scrupulous Devotees
94. The scrupulous devotees are those who fear dishonour by the Son by honouring
the Mother, to abase the one elevating the other. They cannot bear that we
should attribute to Our Lady the most just praise which the holy Fathers have
given her. It is all they can do to endure that they should be more people
before the altar of the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sacrament - as if
the one were contrary to the other, as if those who prayed to our Blessed Lady
did not pray to Jesus through her. They are unwilling that we should speak so
often of Our Lady and address her so frequently.
Here are some of their favourite sayings: "Why so many Rosaries, so many
confraternities and so many external devotions to the Blessed Virgin? There is
much ignorance in all this. It makes a mummery of our religion. Speak to us of
those who are devout to Jesus Christ." (Yet they often name Him without raising
their hats - I say this by way of parenthesis.). " We must have recourse to
Jesus Christ; He is our only Mediator.
We much preach Jesus Christ; this is the
solid devotion." What they say is in a certain sense true, but in they
application they make of it, namely, to hinder devotion to our Blessed Lady,
very dangerous: and it is, under pretext of a greater good, a subtle snare of
the evil one. For the more we honour the Blessed Virgin, the more we honour
Jesus Christ, because we honour Mary only that we may perfectly honour Jesus,
since we go to her only as the way by which we are to find the end we are
seeking, which is Jesus.
95. The Church, with the Holy Ghost, blesses Our Lady first, and Our Lord
second: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus." It is not that Mary is more than Jesus or even equal to Him - that would
be intolerable heresy; but it is that, in order to Bless Jesus more perfectly,
we must begin by blessing Mary. Let us then say, with all the true clients of
Our Lady, in opposition to these false scrupulous devotees, "O Mary, thou art
blessed among all women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus."
III. External Devotees
96. External devotees are persons who make all devotion to our Blessed Virgin
consist in outward practices. They have no taste except for the exterior of this
devotion, because they have no interior spirit of their own. They will say
quantities of Rosaries with the greatest precipitation; they will hear many
Masses distractedly; they will go, without devotion, to processions; they will
enroll themselves in all her confraternities - without amending their lives,
without doing any violence to their passions, or without imitating the virtues
of that most holy Virgin.
They have no love but for the sensible part of devotion, without having any relish for its solidarity. If they have not sensible sweetness in their practices, they think they are doing nothing; they get all out of joint, throw everything up, or do everything at random. The world is full of these exterior devotees, and there are no people who are more
critical than they of men of prayer, who foster an interior spirit as the
essential thing, without, however, disregarding that outward modesty which
always accompanies true devotion.
IV. Presumptuous Devotees
97. Presumptuous devotees are sinners abandoned to their passions, or lovers of
the world, who under a fair name of Christians and clients of our Blessed Lady
conceal pride, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction,
injustice, or some other sin. They sleep in peace in the midst of their bad
habits, without doing any violence to themselves to correct their faults, under
the pretext that they are devout to the Blessed Virgin.
They promise themselves
that God will pardon them; that they will not be allowed to die without
confession; and that they will not be lost eternally because they say the
Rosary, because they fast on Saturdays, because they belong to the Confraternity
of the Holy Rosary, or wear the Scapular, or are enrolled in other
congregations, or they wear the little habit or little chain of Our Lady.
They will not believe us when we tell them that their devotion is only an
illusion of the devil and a pernicious presumption likely to destroy their
souls. They say that God is good and merciful; that He has not made as to
condemn us everlastingly; that no man is without sin; that they shall not die
without confession; that one good act of contrition at the hour of death is
enough; that they are devout to Our Lady, wear the Scapular, say daily, without
fail and without vanity, seven Our Fathers and seven Hail Marys in her honour;
and that they sometimes say the Rosary and the Office of Our Lady, besides
fasting and other things.
To give authority to all this, and to blind themselves
still further, they quote certain stories which they have heard or read - it
does not matter to them whether they be true or false - relating how many people
have died in mortal sin without confession, and then, because in their lifetime
they sometimes said some prayers or went through some practices of devotion to
Our Lady, how they have been raised to life again in order to go to confession;
or their soul has been miraculously retained in their bodies till confession; or
through the clemency of the Blessed Virgin they have obtained from God, at the
moment of death, contrition and pardon of their sins, and so have been saved;
and that they themselves expect similar favours.
98. Nothing in Christianity is more detestable than this diabolical presumption.
For how can we truly say that we love and honour Blessed Lady when by our sins
we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying and outraging Jesus Christ, her
Son? If Mary laid down a law to herself, to save by her mercy this sort of
people, she would be authorizing crime and helping crucify and outrage her Son.
Who would ever dare think such a thing?
99. I say that thus to abuse devotion to Our Lady which, after devotion to Our
Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, is the holiest and solidest of all devotions, is
to be guilty of a horrible sacrilege, which, after the sacrilege of an unworthy
Communion, is the greatest and least pardonable of all sacrileges.
I confess that, in order to be truly devout to our Blessed Lady, it is not
absolutely necessary to be so holy s to avoid every sin, though this were
desirable; but this much at least is necessary, and I beg you to lay it well to
heart: (1) to have a sincere resolution to avoid at least all mortal sin, which
outrages the Mother as well as the Son; (2) to do violence to ourselves to avoid
sin; (3) to enroll ourselves in confraternities, to say the Rosary or other
prayers, to fast on Saturdays and the like.
100. These good works are likewise wonderfully useful for the conversion of a
sinner, however hardened he may be. If my reader be such a one, even though he
have one foot in the abyss, I would advise him to practice them, but only on
condition that he do so with the intention of obtaining from God, through the
intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the grace of contrition and pardon of his
sins and the grace to conquer his evil habits, and not to remain quietly in the
state of sin, contrary to his remorse of conscience, the example of Jesus Christ
and the saints and the maxims of the holy Gospel.
V. Inconstant Devotees
101. The inconstant devotees are those who are devout to our Blessed Lady by
fits and starts. Sometimes they are fervent and sometimes lukewarm. Sometimes
they seem ready to do anything for her, and then a little afterward, they are
not like the same people. They begin by taking up all the devotions to her, and
enrolling themselves in the confraternities; and then they do not practice the
rules with fidelity.
They change like the moon; and Mary puts them under her
feet with the crescent, because they are changeable and unworthy to be reckoned
among the servants of that faithful Virgin who have for their special graces
fidelity and constancy. It were better for such persons not to burden themselves
with so many prayers and practices but to choose a few and fulfill them with
faithfulness and love, in spite of the world, the devil and the flesh.
VI. Hypocritical Devotees
102. We have still to mention the false devotees to our Blessed Lady who are the
hypocritical devotees, who cloak their sins and sinful habits with her mantle,
in order to be taken by men for what they are not.
VII. Interested Devotees
103. There are also the interested devotees, who have recourse to Our Lady only
to gain some lawsuit or to avoid some danger, or to be cured of some illness, or
for some other similar necessity, without which they would forget her
altogether. All these are false devotees, pleasing neither to God nor to His
holy Mother.
104. Let us then take great care not to be of the number of the critical
devotees, who believe nothing and criticize everything; nor of the scrupulous
devotees, who are afraid of being too devout to Our Lady, out of respect to Our
Lord; nor of the exterior devotees, who make all their devotion consist in
outward practices; nor of the presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext of
their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin, wallow in their sins; nor of the
inconstant devotees, who have recourse to Our Lady only to be delivered from
bodily evils, or to obtain temporal goods.
True devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Article Two
I. Characteristics
105. After having laid bare and condemned the false devotions to the most holy
Virgin, we must, in a few words, give the characteristics of true devotion. It
must be: 1. interior, 2. tender, 3. holy, 4. constant, and 5. disinterested.
1. Interior
106. True devotion to Our Lady is interior; that is, it comes from the mind and
the heart. It flows from the esteem we have for her, the high idea we have
formed of her greatness, and the love of which we have for her.
2. Tender
107. It is tender; that is, full of confidence in her, like a child's confidence
in his loving mother. This confidence makes the soul have recourse to her in all
its bodily and mental necessities, with much simplicity, trust and tenderness.
It implores the aid of its good Mother at all times, in all places and above all
things: in its doubts, that it may be enlightened; in its wanderings, that it
may be brought into the right path; in its temptations, that it may be
supported; in its weaknesses, that it may be strengthened; in its falls, that it
may be lifted up; in its discouragements, that it may be cheered; in its
scruples, that they may be taken away; in the crosses, toils and disappointments
of life, that it may be consoled under them. In a word, in all the evils of body
and mind, the soul ordinarily has recourse to Mary, without fear of annoying her
or displeasing Jesus Christ.
3. Holy
108. True devotion to Our Lady is holy; that is to say, it leads the soul to
avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, particularly her
profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer,
her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic
patience, her angelic sweetness and her divine wisdom. These are the ten
principal virtues of the most holy Virgin.
4. Constant
109. True devotion to Our Lady is constant. It confirms the soul in good, and
does not let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises. It makes it courageous
in opposing the world in its fashions and maxims, the flesh in it weariness and
passions, and the devil in his temptations; so that a person truly devout to our
Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable, scrupulous nor timid. It is not
that such a person does not fall, or change sometimes in the sensible feeling of
devotion. But when he falls, he rises again by stretching out his hand to his
good Mother. When he loses the taste and relish of devotion, he does not become
disturbed because of that; for the just and faithful client of Mary lives by the
faith (Heb. 10:38) of Jesus and Mary, not by natural sentiment.
5. Disinterested
110. Lastly, true devotion to Our Lady is disinterested; that is to say, it
inspires the soul not to seek itself but God, and God in His holy Mother. A true
client of Mary does not serve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre and
interest, nor for his own good, whether temporal or eternal, corporal or
spiritual, but exclusively because she deserves to be served, and God alone in
her. He does not love Mary just because she obtains favours for him, or because
he hopes she will, but solely because she is so worthy of love. It is on this
account that he loves and serves her as faithfully in his disgusts and dryness
as in his sweetness and sensible fervors. He loves her as much on Calvary as at
the marriage at Cana.
Oh, how agreeable and precious in the eyes of God and of His holy Mother is such
a client of our Blessed Lady, who has no self-seeking in his service of her! But
in these days how rare is such a sight! It is that it may be less rare that I
have taken my pen in hand to put on paper what I have taught with good results,
in public and in private, during my mission for many years.
111. I have now said many things about the most holy Virgin; but I have many
more to say, and there are infinitely more which I shall omit, either from
ignorance, inability or want of time, in unfolding the plan for forming a true
client of Mary and a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
112. Oh, but my labour will have been well expended i this little writing,
falling into the hands of a soul of good dispositions - a soul well-born of God
and of Mary, and not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man
(Jn. 1:13) - should unfold to him, and should by the grace of the Holy Ghost
inspire him with the excellence and the value of that true and solid devotion to
our Blessed Lady which I am going presently to describe.
If I knew that my
guilty blood could serve in engraving upon anyone's heart the truths which I am
writing in honour of my true Mother and Sovereign Mistress, of whose children
and slaves I am the least, I would use my blood instead of ink to form the
letters, in the hope of practice which I teach, should compensate my dear Mother
and Mistress for the losses which she has suffered through my ingratitude and
infidelities.
113. I feel myself more than ever encouraged to believe and to hope for the
fulfillment of all that I have deeply engraven upon my heart and have asked of
God these many years, namely, that sooner or later the Blessed Virgin shall have
more children, servants and slaves of love than ever; and that by this means,
Jesus Christ, my dear Master, shall reign in hearts more than ever.
114. I clearly foresee that raging beats shall come in fury to tear with their
diabolical teeth this little writing and him whom the Holy Ghost has made use of
to write it - or at least to smother it in the darkness and silence of a coffer,
that it may not appear. They shall even attack and persecute those who shall
read it and carry out in practice.
But what matter? On the contrary, so much the
better! This very foresight encourages me, and makes me hope for great success,
that is to say, for a great squadron of brave and valiant soldiers of Jesus and
Mary, of both sexes, to combat the world, the devil and corrupted nature, in
those more-than-ever perilous times which are about to come. "He who reads, let
him understand." (Matt. 24:15). "He who can receive it, let him receive it."
(Matt. 19:21).
II. Practices
1. Common practices, both interior and exterior.
115. There are several interior practices of true devotion to the Blessed
Virgin. Here are the principal ones, stated compendiously:
(1) to honour her as
the worthy Mother of God, with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say, to
esteem her and honour her above all other saints, as the masterpiece of grace,
and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man;
(2) to meditate on her
virtues, her privileges and her actions;
(3) to contemplate her grandeurs;
(4)
to make acts of love, of praise, of gratitude to her;
(5) to invoke her
cordially;
(6) to offer ourselves to her and unite ourselves with her;
(7) to do
all our actions with the view of pleasing her;
(8) to begin, to continue and to
finish all our actions by her, in her, with her and for her, in order that we
may do them by Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ and for Jesus
Christ, our Last End. We will presently explain this last practice.
116. True devotion to Our Lady also has several exterior practices, of which the
following are the principal ones:
(1) to enroll ourselves in her confraternities
and enter her congregations;
(2) to join the religious orders instituted in her
honour;
(3) to proclaim her praises;
(4) to give alms, to fast and to undergo
outward and inward mortifications in her honour;
(5) to wear her liveries, such
as the Rosary, the Scapular or the little chain;
(6) to recite with attention,
devotion and modesty the holy Rosary, composed of fifteen decades of Hail Mary’s
in honour of the fifteen principal mysteries of Jesus Christ; or five decades,
which is one third of the Rosary, either in honour of the five Joyful Mysteries,
which are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of Jesus Christ, the
Purification, and the Finding of Our Lord in the Temple; or in honour of the
five Sorrowful Mysteries, which are the Agony of Our Lord in the Garden of
Olives, His Scourging, His Crowning with Thorns, His Carrying of the Cross, and
His Crucifixion; or in honour of the five Glorious Mysteries, which are the
Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, the
Assumption of our Blessed Lady, body and soul, into Heaven, and her coronation
by the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.
We may also say a chalet of six or seven decades in honour of the years which we believe Our Lady lived on earth; or the Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin, composed of three Our Fathers and twelve Hail Marys, in honour of her crown of twelve stars or privileges; or the Office of Our Lady, so universally received and recited in the Church; or
the little Psalter of the holy Virgin, which St. Bonaventure composed in her
honour, and which is so tender and so devout that one cannot say it without it
being moved by it; or fourteen Our Fathers and Hail Marys in honour of her
fourteen joys; or some other prayers, hymns and canticles of the Church, such as
the Salve Regina, the Alma, the Ave Regina Coelorum, or the Regina Coeli,
according to the different seasons; or the Ave Maris Stella, the O Gloria
Domina, the Magnificat, or some other practices of devotion, of which books are
full;
(7) to sing, or have sung, spiritual canticles in her honour;
(8) to make
a number of genuflections or reverences, while saying, for example, every
morning, sixty or a hundred times, Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis ("Hail Mary,
Faithful Virgin"), to obtain from God through her the grace to be faithful to
the graces of God during the day; and then again in the evening, Ave Maria,
Mater Misericordiae (" Hail Mary, Mother of Mercy") to ask pardon of God through
her for the sins that we have committed during the day;
(9) to take care of her
confraternities, to adorn her altars, to crown and ornament her images;
(10) to
carry her images, or to have them carried, in procession, and to carry a picture
or an image of her about our own persons, as a mighty arm against the evil
spirit;
(11) to have copies of her name or picture made and placed in churches,
or in houses, or on the gates and entrances into cities, churches and houses;
(12) to consecrate ourselves to her in a special and solemn manner.
117. There are numerous other practices of true devotion toward the Blessed
Virgin which the Holy Ghost has inspired in saintly souls and which are very
sanctifying; they can be read at length in the Paradise Opened to Philagius of
Father Barry, the Jesuit, in which he has collected a great number of devotions
which the saints have practice in honour of Our Lady - devotions which serve
marvelously to sanctify our souls, provided they are performed as they ought to
be, that is to say,
(1) with a good and pure intention to please God only, to
unite ourselves to Jesus Christ as to our Last End, and to edify our neighbour;
(2) with attention and without voluntary distraction;
(3) with devotion, equally
avoiding precipitation and negligence;
(4) with modesty, and a respectful and
edifying posture of the body.
2. Its Perfect Practice
118. But after all, I loudly protest that, having read nearly all the books
which profess to treat of devotion to Our Lady, and having conversed familiarly
with the best and wisest men of these latter times, I have never known or heard
of any practice of devotion toward her at all equal to the one which I now wish
to unfold; demanding from the soul, as it does, more sacrifices for God, ridding
the soul more of itself and of its self-love, keeping it more faithfully in
grace and grace more faithfully in it, uniting it more perfectly and more easily
to Jesus Christ; and finally, being more glorious to God, more sanctifying to
the soul and more useful to our neighbour than any other of the devotions to
her.
119. As the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought
to form, it will not be equally understood by everybody. Some will stop at what
is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest
number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will
only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as
the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual
state? He alone whom the spirit of Jesus Christ shall have revealed this secret,
the faultlessly faithful soul whom He shall conduct there Himself, to advance
from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, from light to light, until her
arrives at the transformation of himself to Jesus Christ, and to the plenitude
of His age on earth and His glory in Heaven.
Continue to The Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Part Two >>>
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Fatima, The Images
True Devotion to Mary, By St. Louis De Montfort
"Typed by: Sue Burton,
@Copy right Sue Burton. and
Marianne Eichhorn.
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