Feb. 25 - Day 6 on our journey

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MariaChristi

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today marks the half-way point in our 12 days of striving to “empty ouselves of the spirit of the world” in our preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary. In Part 1, Chapter 2, of his treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, in which he is explaining basic principles of devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort wrote that the first principle is: “Christ must be the ultimate end of all devotions”. I’ve quoted some paragraphs from that section but today we continue with the second principle:
  1. Secondly, in order to empty ourselves of self, we must die daily to ourselves. This involves our renouncing what the powers of the soul and the senses of the body incline us to do. We must see as if we did not see, hear as if we did not hear and use the things of this world as if we did not use them. This is what St. Paul calls “dying daily”. Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain and does not bear any good fruit. If we do not die to self and if our holiest devotions do not lead us to this necessary and fruitful death, we shall not bear fruit of any worth and our devotions will cease to be profitable. All our good works will be tainted by self-love and self-will so that our greatest sacrifices and our best actions will be unacceptable to God. Consequently when we come to die we shall find ourselves devoid of virtue and merit and discover that we do not possess even one spark of that pure love which God shares only with those who have died to themselves and whose life is hidden with Jesus Christ in him.
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By our Baptism we are called “out of Adam” and are born again to live “in Christ”. God has commanded us to “Be Holy” and Jesus has told us we must “Be perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect”. The perfection to which we are called is the Perfection of Charity. God is Love and we are called to receive His Love in order to keep His Commandment to love one another as He has loved us. Without Jesus we can do nothing, but by the power of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of our Mother what is impossible for us is not impossible for Him to accomplish in us.

Today’s Gospel for the 2nd Sunday of Lent is the Transfiguration of Jesus, and we hear the beautiful words of God:
This is my Beloved Son, listen to Him.
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By God’s Grace, this Lent especially, may we focus on Jesus, The Word of God made Flesh for us, and listen to Him Who is our Way our Truth and our Life.

Mary, Mother and Model of the Church intercede for us that we may ponder in our hearts as you did all Jesus said.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful; kindle in us the Fire of Your Love.
Father, purify our hearts by the Fire of Your Love that we may become holy as You are Holy.
 
We are starting our Total Consecration (renewal for me) on Monday. Today we had a pre-reading assignment from the works of St. Louis de Montfort whose writings we will be using for the 33-day program. It said in part,
“It would hardly be possible for me to put into words how much Our Lady thinks of the Holy Rosary and of how she vastly prefers it to all other devotions. Neither can I sufficiently express how highly she rewards those who work to preach the devotion, to establish it and spread it, nor on the other hand how firmly she punishes those who work against it.”
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You and the others on CAF who work hard to spread the devotions to Mary, including of course the Rosary, must be so blessed, loved and appreciated by our Blessed Mother. Why would anyone want to work against it, I do not know, but we see it from time to time even on here so I am happy to see that Our Lady has such staunch promoters and defenders.
 
Dear Tis_Bearself,

Wonderful! So happy you will begin the 33 day preparation following St. Louis De Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I was a bit surprised by the ending words of your quote as I read the words:
"…how firmly she punishes those who work against it.”
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Somehow, I can only see Mary leaving judgment/punishment to her Son. It certainly must sadden her heart, already pierced, but it seems to me Mary would continue to pray for those who may be misguided in working against True Devotion – trusting in the Mercy of Her Son to give them grace to discern what is true from what is false.

I read this quote recently attributed to Sister Lucia of Fatima:
“The Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to her message, neither the good nor the bad”
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Reparation to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary seems more important every day!
 
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MariaChristi said:
Somehow, I can only see Mary leaving judgment/punishment to her Son. It certainly must sadden her heart, already pierced, but it seems to me Mary would continue to pray for those who may be misguided in working against True Devotion – trusting in the Mercy of Her Son to give them grace to discern what is true from what is false.
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Those are St. Louis’ words, not mine…but given the pictures of Mary driving off demons with a club, perhaps that is what he meant, that she would punish the forces of evil that work against her. I am sure if a human was able to be helped to understand (I changed the word so as not to give a “redemptorix” impression) by Mary that she would do so.
 
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Dear Tis_Bearself,

Thanks for your reply. I did not recognize the words as being from St. Louis de Montfort. I’ve read True Devotion many times, and also his book on Love of Eternal Wisdom and other works of his but simply didn’t remember his writing anything about Mary’s punishing anyone who worked against True Devotion. Did the source from which you read the quote give a paragraph number from True Devotion, or any context, or title of any other work of De Montfort in which the phrase might be found? I’d appreciate it if you could let me know.

I have seen an artist’s conception of Mary “punching satan in the nose” and of course I concede that may be someone’s idea of showing the power God gives to Mary, but… it seems to me any “power” is more truly expressed in Mary’s powerful intercession given to her by God. Hope you can find the exact source, though. Thanks again. 🙂
 
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Dear Tis_Bearself,

Thanks so much. Yes, I checked in my copy of “The Secret of the Rosary”, Eighth Rose, and those are St. Louis De Montfort’s words you quoted. I haven’t read that particular book in a long time, and even as I re-read the chapter on the Eighth Rose it seemed to me St. Louis spoke mostly about those who made the devotion known and how the devils were thwarted in their tempting and tormenting of those who sought to honor Mary and her Rosary.

Perhaps that is why the opening sentences which included the words you quoted did not leave a “lasting impression”. I honestly did not remember them, Thanks so much for giving me the context to help my understanding. 🙂
 
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