Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls and I cannot help but wonder how many souls in purgatory will enter heaven today. I wonder how many ever heard of “True Devotion”.
Only God knows the heart of every soul He created. I continue to pray for all the souls in Purgatory daily, and pray also The Holy Spirit will guide me and others, to be Faithful to the “Interior Life” given in Baptism. Today we continue listening to words from St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise on “True Devotion” to the Blessed Virgin.
St. Louis listed 5 types of “authentic” devotion in contrast with types of false devotion and today we repeat in the title of this thread those 5 types. Yesterday we listened to the first type: “Interior,” and today we look at the second and third:
Second, it is trustful, that is to say, it fills us with confidence in the Blessed Virgin, the confidence that a child has for its loving Mother. It prompts us to go to her in every need of body and soul with great simplicity, trust and affection. We implore our Mother’s help always, everywhere, and for everything. We pray to her to be enlightened in our doubts, to be put back on the right path when we go astray, to be protected when we are tempted, to be strengthened when we are weakening, to be lifted up when we fall into sin, to be encouraged when we are losing heart, to be rid of our scruples, to be consoled in the trials, crosses and disappointments of life. Finally, in all our afflictions of body and soul, we naturally turn to Mary for help, with never a fear of importuning her or displeasing our Lord.
Third, true devotion to our Lady is holy, that is, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary. Her ten principal virtues are: deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your Faithful! Jesus we trust in You. Mary, Mother of the Church pray for us. May God look with favor especially on all those who have honored His Son through True Devotion to you, Mary our Mother and Model for the Church!
Thanks again for your “heart” and I trust you and I and many others are praying to have a “pure heart” like Mary our Mother. It is so important for us as Jesus taught in His Beatitudes:
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Mt 5:8)
In True Devotion, chapter 1, paragraph 33 , St Louis shares with us these words:
Moreover, Jesus is still as much as ever the fruit of Mary, as heaven and earth repeat thousands of times a day: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” It is therefore certain that Jesus is the fruit and gift of Mary for every single man who possesses Him, just as truly as He is for all mankind. Consequently, if any of the faithful have Jesus formed in their heart they can boldly say, “It is thanks to Mary that what I possess is Jesus her fruit, and without her I would not have Him.” We can attribute more truly to her what Saint Paul said of himself, “I am in labour again with all the children of God until Jesus Christ, my Son, is formed in them to the fullness of his age.” Saint Augustine, surpassing himself as well as all that I have said so far, affirms that in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God all the predestinate, while in the world, are hidden in the womb of the Blessed Virgin where they are protected, nourished, cared for and developed by this good Mother, until the day she brings them forth to a life of glory after death, which the Church calls the birthday of the just. This is indeed a mystery of grace unknown to the reprobate and little known even to the predestinate!
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