In what, does Devotion to Mary consist?

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today begins Chap 2, in St. Louis deMontfort’s “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin”:

1. Having spoken briefly of the necessity of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, I must now explain what this devotion consists in. This I will do with God’s help after I have laid down certain basic truths which throw light on the remarkable and sound devotion which I propose to unfold.
2. Jesus, our Saviour, true God and true man must be the ultimate end of all our other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of everything. “We labour,” says St. Paul, “only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ.”

For in Him alone dwells the entire fullness of the divinity and the complete fullness of grace, virtue and perfection. In Him alone we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing; He is the only teacher from whom we must learn; the only Lord on whom we should depend; the only Head to whom we should be united and the only model that we should imitate. He is the only Physician that can heal us; the only Shepherd that can feed us; the only Way that can lead us; the only Truth that we can believe; the only Life that can animate us. He alone is everything to us and He alone can satisfy all our desires.

We are given no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. God has laid no other foundation for our salvation, perfection and glory than Jesus. Every edifice which is not built on that firm rock, is founded upon shifting sands and will certainly fall sooner or later. Every one of the faithful who is not united to Him is like a branch broken from the stem of the vine. It falls and withers and is fit only to be burnt. If we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in us, we need not fear damnation. Neither angels in heaven nor men on earth, nor devils in hell, no creature whatever can harm us, for no creature can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Through Him, with Him and in Him, we can do all things and render all honour and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit; we can make ourselves perfect and be for our neighbor a fragrance of eternal life.

Come Holy Spirit, fill us with Jesus as you filled Mary! Mary our Mother pray for us.

 

[fide]

Thank you, MariaChristi, for this series and this “installment,” with more to come, in particular. So many Christians (non-Catholic and also, sad to say, some Catholics) who oppose Marian devotion, do so thinking that they are righteously refusing any “obstacles” or “barriers” to their bond with Jesus. They see Mary as an impediment to union with Jesus.

May some of those misguided non-Catholics and, it hurts to say it, Catholics, who see a good thing in marginalizing Mary - may they listen to St. Louis deMontfort on this matter! May the Lord lift the fog from their eyes, give them grace that they may see and hear rightly!

The Church has been limping along for some decades now, deeply wounded in spiritual and doctrinal poverty, growing in worldliness, wandering in a very dry, infertile, barren desert. May the Lord God have mercy on us, and give us grace to awaken - to come alive in Him - to pick up with zeal the mission He placed on our shoulders so many centuries ago! The secular godless world is crying for Truth, hungry for Truth, though they know it not. The Church owes the hungry poor of this world, the Bread of Life entrusted to us by Jesus. We need to embrace the Jesus - the only real and true Jesus - sent to us by the Father through Mary - only He, in the fullness of His Truth, has the fulness of the Gospel of Life and of Love that we all need.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear fide,

Thanks for your reply and for your encouragement to both non-Catholics and Catholics to read and hear the Truth, God gave to St. Louis de Montfort in his writing his treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.”. Later in his treatise, he describes both true and false devotions, but in this chapter he begins so clearly to show with absolute certainty: Jesus, our Saviour, true God and true man must be the ultimate end of all our other devotions…

Hopefully, many will read and take to heart what St. Louis de Montfort has written and preached in many missions to the lay people of his own time. God has willed St. Louis de Montfort’s writing to be carried for centuries through the Catholic Church to our present time for good reason – God knows we need Mary otherwise Jesus would not have told His Beloved Disciple John on Calvary, and through John, told all of us:

“Behold your Mother”

Hopefully, by God’s Grace, many will read and take to heart the words of St. Louis de Montfort today and continue to follow these threads to learn more about True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin or click on the link to read the whole treatise online.

God’s Plan to send Jesus through Mary continues until Jesus comes again at the end of time. When He sent Jesus the first time, the humble shepherds were the first to come and see Jesus born of Mary. It is the poor and humble who are perhaps the last in the world but will be the first to see Jesus when He comes again. Jesus, Meek and Humble of Heart, make our hearts like yours! Mary our Mother, pray for us.