"...If they had only known..."

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MariaChristi

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin”:
  1. All this is taken from St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure. According to them, we have three steps to take in order to reach God. The first, nearest to us and most suited to our capacity, is Mary; the second is Jesus Christ; the third is God the Father. To go to Jesus, we should go to Mary, our mediatrix of intercession. To go to God the Father, we must go to Jesus, our Mediator of redemption. This order is perfectly observed in the devotion I shall speak about further on.
Fifth principle: It is difficult to keep the graces received from God
    1. It is very difficult, considering our weakness and frailty, to keep the graces and treasures we have received from God.

      We carry this treasure, which is worth more than heaven and earth, in fragile vessels, that is, in a corruptible body and in a weak and wavering soul which requires very little to depress and disturb it.
    1. The evil spirits, cunning thieves that they are, can take us by surprise and rob us of all we possess. They are watching day and night for the right moment. They roam incessantly seeking to devour us and to snatch from us in one brief moment of sin all the grace and merit we have taken years to acquire. Their malice and their experience, their cunning and their numbers ought to make us ever fearful of such a misfortune happening to us. People, richer in grace and virtue, more experienced and advanced in holiness than we are, have been caught off their guard and robbed and stripped of everything. How many cedars of Lebanon, how many stars of the firmament have we sadly watched fall and lose in a short time their loftiness and their brightness!
What has brought about this unexpected reverse? Not the lack of grace, for this is denied no one. It was a lack of humility; they considered themselves stronger and more self-sufficient than they really were. They thought themselves well able to hold on to their treasures. They believed their house secure enough and their coffers strong enough to safeguard their precious treasure of grace. It was because of their unconscious reliance on self - although it seemed to them that they were relying solely on the grace of God - that the most just Lord left them to themselves and allowed them to be despoiled. If they had only known of the wonderful devotion that I shall later explain, they would have entrusted their treasure to Mary, the powerful and faithful Virgin. She would have kept it for them as if it were her own possession and even have considered that trust an obligation of justice.
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Come Holy Spirit, make it known to all Your Faithful, how to entrust “their treasure to Mary”!
 
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@MariaChristi

Thank you for your dedication to Our Lady, to St Louis de Montfort, and to us here on CAF.
 
Dear Minks,

And thank you for your reply here. Each reply is an encouragement that others may be drawing closer to Our Lady and through her to Jesus – and that is such a blessing! I am also grateful to the one who “introduced me” to St. Louis de Montfort, after we joined the Legion of Mary organized at our Catholic High School many, many years ago.

I already had a love for Jesus and Mary but the Legion was founded by a layman in Ireland, Frank Duff who was inspired by his reading of St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” . Having read the little book about 1/2 dozen times he was given the grace to know it was TRUE! And as they say, “The rest is history”. 🙂 The Legion’s “founding inspiration” was from St. Louis de Montfort, whom I believe received the grace through Mary from God.

The Dominican sister who was the Spiritual Director of the Legion explained De Montfort’s Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary to us and after some time invited anyone who wanted to pray that prayer of Consecration to do so. With her help a small group of us did pray that beautiful prayer in the Church next to the School Building on June 10 and I count it as one of the great Graces in my life.

I hope you will read the book if you have never read it, and I hope all who read these threads begin at least to grow toward loving Jesus and Mary more as they read the excerpts from St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise. It is a book God willed to be writtin for the peple of De Montfort’s time and for times like our own. Truth is Truth. It does not change because God is Truth and He is eternally the Same! Thanks again, and please let us pray for one another, for the Church and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Legion of Mary, see HERE

An article about Frank Duff and St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” can be read HERE
 
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Today is the memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary. If we want to keep grace and stay close to Jesus, we can invoke this most holy name of Mary frequently, asking our Mother to protect us.

Here is one of my favorite paragraph’s from St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church:
St. Ephrem goes so far as to say, “that the name of Mary is the key of the gates of heaven” (De Laud. Dei Gen .), in the hands of those who devoutly invoke it. And thus it is not without reason that St. Bonaventure says “that Mary is the salvation of all who call upon her:” for he addresses her, saying: “O salvation of all who invoke thee!”, meaning, that to obtain eternal salvation and invoke her name are synonymous; and Richard of St. Laurence affirms, “that the devout invocation of this sweet and holy name leads to the acquisition of superabundant graces in this life, and a very high degree of glory in the next”. “If then, O brethren,” concludes Thomas à Kempis, “you desire consolation in every labor, have recourse to Mary; invoke the name of Mary, honor Mary, recommend yourselves to Mary, rejoice with Mary, weep with Mary, pray with Mary, walk with Mary, seek Jesus with Mary; in fine, desire to live and die with Jesus and Mary. By acting thus you will always advance in the ways of God, for Mary will most willingly pray for you, and the Son will most certainly grant all that his Mother asks” (Ad Nov . s. 21).
Chapter X
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Just outside our Adoration Chapel is entry to our Marian Grotto. Every time I go to Adoration, I stop by for a small chat with Our Lady to thank her for saying YES to God’s plan. My officially time for Adoration is 1 AM Thursday morning. It is so peaceful, and the grotto still has candles lit .
 
Thanks dear patricius,

For your “heart” letting us know you continue reading and appreciating St. Louis De Montfort’s “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.” Thanks also for this reply which gives us other saints’ insights into the great honor God has given to Mary, in her Immaculate Conception, filling her with His Grace! St. Alphonsus gives us the testimonies of holy men who truly wrote of their love for Mary and have encouraged the Church to call upon Mary as our Mediatrix that we may:
"…always advance in the ways of God, for Mary will most willingly pray for you, and the Son will most certainly grant all that his Mother asks”
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Dear Stephie,

Thanks also for your “heart” which inclines you to keep reading and pondering St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to the BLessed Virgin”. Thanks for this reply in which you express your heartfelt thanks to Mary our Mother for saying her “YES” to God’s Plan. Each Thursday morning our Legion of Mary meets 10:30 to noon so we are close in time as we pray to Jesus through Mary. 🙂
 
Dear Camehome4john6,

Thanks for your “heart” which lets us know you read and appreciated St. Louis de Montfort’s words in “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin”. It seems to me when any of us “come home” to the Catholic Church Mary is there with God to welcome us as our Mother!
 
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