Nov. 9 - Perfect Devotion to Mary - Perfect Devotion to Christ!

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we begin Part 2, Chapter 3 in St. Louis de Montfort’s "True Devotion:

PART II: THE PERFECT DEVOTION TO OUR LADY

CHAPTER THREE - THE PERFECT CONSECRATION TO JESUS CHRIST

1. A complete consecration to Mary

1. As all perfection consists in our being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus it naturally follows that the most perfect of all devotions is that which conforms, unites, and consecrates us most completely to Jesus. Now of all God’s creatures Mary is the most conformed to Jesus. It therefore follows that, of all devotions, devotion to her makes for the most effective consecration and conformity to him. The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus.

That is why perfect consecration to Jesus is but a perfect and complete consecration of oneself to the Blessed Virgin, which is the devotion I teach; or in other words, it is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy baptism.

1. This devotion consists in giving oneself entirely to Mary in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her. It requires us to give:

(1) Our body with its senses and members;

(2) Our soul with its faculties;

(3) Our present material possessions and all we shall acquire in the future;

(4) Our interior and spiritual possessions, that is, our merits, virtues and good actions of the past, the present and the future.

In other words, we give her all that we possess both in our natural life and in our spiritual life as well as everything we shall acquire in the future in the order of nature, of grace, and of glory in heaven. This we do without any reservation, not even of a penny, a hair, or the smallest good deed. And we give for all eternity without claiming or expecting, in return for our offering and our service, any other reward than the honour of belonging to our Lord through Mary and in Mary, even though our Mother were not - as in fact she always is - the most generous and appreciative of all God’s creatures.

Come, Holy Spirit, kindle in us the Fire of Your Love! Jesus we trust in You! Mary, mother of the Church, pray for us!

 

[hazcompat]

Why is Mary called the New Eve?​

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As Pope Saint John Paul II often pointed out, "the comparison Eve-Mary constantly recurs in the course of reflection on the deposit of faith received from divine Revelation. It is one of the themes frequently taken up by the Fathers, ecclesiastical writers and theologians. As a rule, from this comparison there emerges at first sight a difference, a contrast. Eve, as “the mother of all the living” (Gen 3:20), is the witness to the biblical “beginning,” which contains the truth about the creation of man made in the image and likeness of God and the truth about original sin. Mary is the witness to the new “beginning” and the “new creation” (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). ( Mulieris Dignitatem n.11)

Moreover, Mary, the first redeemed in the history of salvation, is “a new creation:” she is “full of grace” (Ibid.). Mary is the New Eve just as Jesus is the New Adam. This truth so essential to Marian dogma is, in the words of Saint John Henry Newman, “the great rudimental teaching of Antiquity from its earliest date concerning her.” (Letter to Pusey)

The Second Vatican Council summarized the question by stating that, “as Saintt Irenaeus says, she ‘being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.’ Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert in their preaching, ‘The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.’ Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her ‘the Mother of the living,’ and still more often they say: ‘death through Eve, life through Mary’” ( Lumen Gentium n. 56).

Saint Irenaeus used the symbol of a reverse circuit to describe how the evil contracted in the origins was overcome: Christ assumed the figure of Adam, the cross stood for the tree of the fall, and Mary assumed the figure of Eve. Each of the elements that were corrupted by the fall were renewed from their roots. In the 12th century, the title of “New Eve” was attached to Mary’s spiritual motherhood because of this notion of “recirculatio” (circuit in reverse).

Adapted from: Aleteia

Read more on mariedenazareth.com :

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear “The Holy Trinity”,

Thanks for your “heart” to indicate your love for Jesus through Mary and to indicate as well your appreciation of what St. Louis De Montfort, by God’s Grace, has written so well, in his treatise on True Devotion.

May the Lord in His Love for Mary, grant us who are seeking to honor Him through her the graces we need to persevere in the Supernatural Virtues of Faith, Hope and above all Divine Charity, given to us by Him in our Baptism.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear hazcompat,

Thanks for your reply to this thread. You are probably the most frequent visitor to these posts on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” by St. Louis de Montfort. It is a blessing to have you and others join in reading or re-reading the words of this Saint, and seeking to understand by God’s Grace, more fully the beautiful Gift God gave us from the Cross in those beautiful words to His Beloved Disciple John and to all of us:

Behold Your Mother

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Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your Faithful. Kindle in us the Fire of Your Love. Jesus, we trust in You! Mary Mother of the Church pray for us.