"...let me count the ways..."

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the last few threads, I’ve been sharing with you St. Louis de Montfort’s explanation of the Biblical Narrative concerning Jacob and Esau and their Mother Rebecca. After describing how Jacob is a prefigure of Christ in his tenderness toward his Mother, and Esau is a prefigure of those who care little, St. Louis goes on to describe our Mother Mary as the “best of all mothers”, surpassing Rebecca who merely prefigures Mary’s motherly care.

As St. Louis continues through several more paragraphs describing all that Mary does for us, I thought of the famous poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “How do I Love Thee, Let me Count the Ways”.

My last post left off on paragraph 204, and St. Louis continues to list all the ways Mary is the best of all Mothers in comparing her to Rebecca, but today I’ll post only the final paragraphs in this section of his book on True Devotion:

…211. Finally, the fifth and greatest service which this loving Mother renders her faithful followers is to intercede for them with her Son. She appeases him with her prayers, brings her servants into closer union with him and maintains that union.

Rebecca made Jacob approach the bed of his father. His father touched him, embraced him and even joyfully kissed him after having satisfied his hunger with the well-prepared dishes which Jacob had brought him. Then inhaling most joyfully the exquisite perfume of his garments, he cried: “Behold the fragrance of my son is as the fragrance of a field of plenty which the Lord has blessed.” The fragrance of this rich field which so captivated the heart of the father, is none other than the fragrance of the merits and virtues of Mary who is the plentiful field of grace in which God the Father has sown the grain of wheat of the elect, his only Son.

How welcome to Jesus Christ, the Father of the world to come, is a child perfumed with the fragrance of Mary! How readily and how intimately does he unite himself to that child! But this we have already shown at length.

1. Furthermore, once Mary has heaped her favours upon her children and her faithful servants and has secured for them the blessing of the heavenly Father and union with Jesus Christ, she keeps them in Jesus and keeps Jesus in them. She guards them, watching over them unceasingly, lest they lose the grace of God and fall into the snares of their enemies. “She keeps the saints in their fullness” (St. Bonaventure), and inspires them to persevere to the end, as we have already said.

Such is the explanation given to this ancient allegory which typifies the mystery of predestination and reprobation.

I have said this before, but as I continue to read and ponder this beautiful little book by St. Louis de Montfort, I find this saint writing from what he learned by the power of the Holy Spirit, in his listening to Sacred Scripture, and by his cooperation with God’s Grace, living the Truth he heard. When this saint and others (like St. Bonaventure, St. Bernard, St. John Paul II and St. Maximilian Kolbe) write about our Mother Mary, they too write from Scripture and their own experience. May we learn also by the power of the Holy Spirit as they did, and by His Grace live as tender sons and daughters of so noble a Mother, as Mary is – given to us by Jesus from His Cross.