Nov. 4 - "...a mighty legion of brave and valiant soldiers of Jesus and Mary..."

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I beseech you again to keep listening to the wisdom of God, speaking through His Servant, St. Louis de Montfort in his treatise on "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

1. But my labour will be well rewarded if this little book falls into the hands of a noble soul, a child of God and of Mary, born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor of the will of man. My time will be well spent if, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, after having read this book he is convinced of the supreme value of the solid devotion to Mary I am about to describe. If I thought that my guilty blood could help the reader to accept in his heart the truths that I set down in honour of my dear Mother and Queen, I, her most unworthy child and slave, would use it instead of ink to write these words. I would hope to find faithful souls who, by their perseverance in the devotion I teach, will repay her for the loss she has suffered through my ingratitude and infidelity.
2. I feel more than ever inspired to believe and expect the complete fulfilment of the desire that is deeply engraved on my heart and what I have prayed to God for over many years, namely, that in the near or distant future the Blessed Virgin will have more children, servants and slaves of love than ever before, and that through them Jesus, my dear Lord, will reign more than ever in the hearts of men.
3. I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear to pieces with their diabolical teeth this little book and the one the Holy Spirit made use of to write it, or they will cause it at least to lie hidden in the darkness and silence of a chest and so prevent it from seeing the light of day. They will even attack and persecute those who read it and put into practice what it contains. But no matter! So much the better! It even gives me encouragement to hope for great success at the prospect of a mighty legion of brave and valiant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, both men and women, who will fight the devil, the world, and corrupt nature in the perilous times that are sure to come.

"Let the reader understand. Let him accept this teaching who can."

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us, the fire of Your Love! Jesus we trust in You. Mary, Mother of the Church pray for us.

Some of you may know that “True Devotion” was hidden in a chest and kept safe during perilous times in France. The Lord wanted His Church to have this little book!

 

[hazcompat]

IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
REDEMPTORIS MATER
On the Blessed Virgin Mary
in the life of the Pilgrim Church

Mary’s motherhood, completely pervaded by her spousal attitude as the “handmaid of the Lord,” constitutes the first and fundamental dimension of that mediation which the Church confesses and proclaims in her regard100 and continually “commends to the hearts of the faithful,” since the Church has great trust in her. For it must be recognized that before anyone else it was God himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted himself to the Virgin of Nazareth, giving her his own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation. Her election to the supreme office and dignity of Mother of the Son of God refers, on the ontological level, to the very reality of the union of the two natures in the person of the Word (hypostatic union). This basic fact of being the Mother of the Son of God is from the very beginning a complete openness to the person of Christ, to his whole work, to his whole mission. The words “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord” testify to Mary’s openness of spirit: she perfectly unites in herself the love proper to virginity and the love characteristic of motherhood, which are joined and, as it were, fused together.

For this reason Mary became not only the “nursing mother” of the Son of Man but also the "associate of unique nobility"101 of the Messiah and Redeemer. As I have already said, she advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and in this pilgrimage to the foot of the Cross there was simultaneously accomplished her maternal cooperation with the Savior’s whole mission through her actions and sufferings. Along the path of this collaboration with the work of her Son, the Redeemer, Mary’s motherhood itself underwent a singular transformation, becoming ever more imbued with “burning charity” towards all those to whom Christ’s mission was directed. Through this “burning charity,” which sought to achieve, in union with Christ, the restoration of "supernatural life to souls,"102 Mary entered, in a way all her own, into the one mediation “between God and men” which is the mediation of the man Christ Jesus. If she was the first to experience within herself the supernatural consequences of this one mediation-in the Annunciation she had been greeted as “full of grace”-then we must say that through this fullness of grace and supernatural life she was especially predisposed to cooperation with Christ, the one Mediator of human salvation. And such cooperation is precisely this mediation subordinated to the mediation of Christ.

Peace

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

Thanks for another quote from Pope St. John Paul II, another Champion of Mary as was St. Louis de Montfort and St. Maximilian Kolbe. It has been awhile since I’ve read “Redemptoris Mater” but it is a beautiful document as I remember it.

Reading your excerpt today, it is so similar to St. Louis de Montfort’s writing in “True Devotion” . No Mystery there of course, since Pope St. John Paul II wrote that reading St. Louis de Montfort’s “True devotion” was a turning point in His young life. When he became Pope he chose words from St. Louis de Montfort for his Papal Motto: “Totus Tuus” (All Yours).

Like St. Louis, JPII lived the words he heard from the Holy Spirit in his reading of Holy Scripture. What beautiful saints who so resembled Jesus as Mary did! They learned from Mary’s example to listen to all Jesus said and did, and pondered all in her heart. May we all grow in God’s Grace, answering His Call to all of us: “Be holy as I am Holy”

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Jen7,

Thanks so much for your “heart” to indicate your love for Jesus through Mary. How good to be a child of God and of Mary in these days of uncertainty and confusion! We can listen to Jesus as Mary did and hear Him in the Gospel of John assuring us:

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (Jn 14:27)

Let us remain in His Word as Mary did, pondering all in our hearts.