Mary and our receiving Holy Communion

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Having been blessed by reading about Mary and the Mass recently, I went back to St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” after Mass this morning and after reading another reply to my first thread on Mary and the Mass, so I could begin this thread on Mary and our receiving Holy Communion.

For a long time I’ve practiced some of the suggestions St. Louis De Montfort wrote as a Supplement for practicing True Devotion at Holy Communion. I will only include a few:

Before Holy Communion

1. Place yourself humbly in the presence of God…
   …Implore Mary to lend you her heart so that you may receive her Son with her dispositions.

During Holy Communion

268 …Tell Him that although you are a great sinner you still presume to approach Him, supported by His holy Mother and adorned with her merits and virtues…

After Holy Communion

1. After Holy Communion, close your eyes and recollect yourself. Then usher Jesus into the heart of Mary: you are giving Him to his Mother who will receive Him with great love and give Him the place of honour, adore Him profoundly, show Him perfect love, embrace Him intimately in spirit and in truth, and perform many offices for him of which we, in our ignorance, would know nothing.
2. Or, maintain a profoundly humble heart in the presence of Jesus dwelling in Mary…
3. Or, ask Jesus living in Mary that his kingdom may come upon earth through his holy Mother. Ask for divine Wisdom, divine love, the forgiveness of your sins, or any other grace, but always through Mary and in Mary…

Remember these are only his suggestions, but I have found them helpful and use some of them – not every time – and I do not have the saint’s words memorized, but it is with similar sentiments, that I’m always grateful to be receiving Jesus through and with Mary in a special way.

Clicking on the link at the beginning of this thread today will take you to the online version of True Devotion, and clicking on the “Supplement” (last item in the index) you can read the full list of suggestions from paragraph 266 through 272.

 

[Mattapoisett64]

I’m sorry, but “Jesus living in Mary?” I rather thought it was the other way around.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

I think you have to look at the entirety of the quoted material and view the line in that context rather than on its own.

 

[Mattapoisett64]

I did, and frankly find much of deMontfort highly questionable. Who are we - and by what authority are we to - “usher Jesus into the heart of Mary?” Strikes me as theologically questionable and spiritually arrogant. The whole tenor of these kinds of passages strikes me as elevating Mary above Jesus and making Christ subservient to her.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Mattapoisett64,

Jesus came to us first - in Mary’s womb - in the Incarnation: The Word became Flesh and dwelt among us. The words “Jesus Living in Mary” were true in the nine months she carried Him within her, and continue to be true in the Church. Jesus lives in us spiritually by His Power and His Presence and He lives in us substantially at the time of Holy Communion.

Mary is Mother and Model of the Church. When She gave birth to Jesus physically she also gave birth to His Mystical Body the Church! The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

963 … “The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer… She is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ’ … since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head.” “Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church.”

964 Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death”; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.”

I hope you will read St. Louis de Montfort’s entire treatise, on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin”, prayerfully and slowly, in connection with the many references to Mary in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I’ve only posted a few paragraphs, but the Catechism gives much more. It may help you understand more of what the words “Jesus living in Mary” mean. Thanks for your reply.

 

[MariaChristi]

Thanks for your reply, Cor_ad_Cor. I agree: reading in context really helps.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Mattapoisett64,

Perhaps if you read the entire context of the author’s work you’d better understand, the words he wrote. St. Louis de Montfort is a canonized saint whose writings have helped other saints and those of us who are still on our journey.

St. John Paul II wrote that reading De Montfort’s treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” was a turning point in his young life. St. Theresa of Calcutta recommended St. Louis De Montfort’s writings to her Missionaries of Charity.

Servant of God, Frank Duff Founder of the Legion of Mary, admitted that his initial difficulty in reading St. Louis De Montfort was not De Montfort’s fault but his own lack of understanding. After reading the book about 6 times, he finally acknowledged it to be “True”! If you’d like to read his experience he wrote an article about it. See HERE