A St Louis de Montfort curiosity regarding the elect

[jerome_ky]

In “Methods for Saying the Rosary,” the “Fourth Method” includes a meditation on each bead of the rosary for each Mystery. I was reading this and was struck by this meditation on the 5th Hail Mary for The Visitation:

1. Hail Mary The agreement between Jesus and Mary in her womb on the choice of the elect.

That is a very remarkable concept. I have to assume that this was a point of theology in Saint de Montfort’s day. Does anyone know more about this idea, that Jesus and Mary collaborated in the womb on the “choice of the elect?” It makes sense in terms of Marian concepts, as she is the Mediatrix of All Graces, but that is such a stark image I wonder where it came from.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

In “Methods for Saying the Rosary,” the “Fourth Method” includes a meditation on each bead of the rosary for each Mystery. I was reading this and was struck by this meditation on the 5th Hail Mary for The Visitation:

1. Hail Mary The agreement between Jesus and Mary in her womb on the choice of the elect.

That is a very remarkable concept. I have to assume that this was a point of theology in Saint de Montfort’s day. Does anyone know more about this idea, that Jesus and Mary collaborated in the womb on the “choice of the elect?” It makes sense in terms of Marian concepts, as she is the Mediatrix of All Graces, but that is such a stark image I wonder where it came from.

I have also never encountered this, and would love to hear more. It seems on its surface to be an overwrought concept that verges on inappropriate of Marian theology, to say nothing of predestination.

 

[ffg]

It’s important to recognize language differences both related to time and translation.

I would suppose that such a meditation could be attributed to the idea that Mary can be related to by all of humanity as ‘mother’, but obviously only per the will of God and accepted by Mary.

Perhaps an understanding of what incarnation means for Mary and her relationship to humans.

In the context of being in the middle of the visitation - Luke 1:48 -

"For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;

behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed."

Re-affirmed at the cross - ‘behold your mother’.

 

[ffg]

Sorry about the double post, but I just had an experience that I think needs to be shared here.

I went to lunch and stopped into the church next to us, in the church I took the time to look at all the windows, one of the windows was a window of St. Joseph’s death.

Jesus was present as well as Mary. It made me want to do a little research on the subject, I found this site from EWTN (originally in a circa 1600’s book: The “Mystical City of God” by Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda (1602-1665)):

ewtn.com/library/MARY/DEATHJOS.HTM

When I read this line, I thought it belongs here…

St. Joseph to Mary "“Blessed art Thou among all women and elect of all the creatures. Let angels and men praise Thee; let all the generations know, praise and exalt thy dignity; and may in Thee be known, adored and exalted the name of the Most High through all the coming ages; may He be eternally praised for having created Thee so pleasing in his eyes and in the sight of all the blessed spirits. I hope to enjoy thy sight in the heavenly fatherland.”

The ‘choice of the elect’ in the meditation, I believe is the choice of Mary.