"When Mary has taken root in a soul..." St. Louis De Montfort

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Only a prayerful soul like Saint Louis De Montfort could write this treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary”. He is not merely writing “opinion” but from the storehouse of his prayerful study of Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. When you read, and re-read as St. JPII, St. Teresa of Calcutta, Venerable Edel Quinn and Servant of God Frank Duff and see how his writing became so fruitful in their lives, it is an encouragement to keep reading and pondering as they did the Wisdom God gives to holy souls like St. Luis De Montfort and other saints thorough the ages. We continue today in Chapter One of "True Devotion on the Necessity of Devotion to Mary:
  1. God the Holy Spirit wishes to fashion his chosen ones in and through Mary. He tells her, “My well-beloved, my spouse, let all your virtues take root in my chosen ones that they may grow from strength to strength and from grace to grace. When you were living on earth, practising the most sublime virtues, I was so pleased with you that I still desire to find you on earth without your ceasing to be in heaven. Reproduce yourself then in my chosen ones, so that I may have the joy of seeing in them the roots of your invincible faith, profound humility, total mortification, sublime prayer, ardent charity, your firm hope and all your virtues. You are always my spouse, as faithful, pure, and fruitful as ever. May your faith give me believers; your purity, virgins; your fruitfulness, elect and living temples.”
  2. When Mary has taken root in a soul she produces in it wonders of grace which only she can produce; for she alone is the fruitful virgin who never had and never will have her equal in purity and fruitfulness. Together with the Holy Spirit Mary produced the greatest thing that ever was or ever will be: a God-man. She will consequently produce the marvels which will be seen in the latter times. The formation and the education of the great saints who will come at the end of the world are reserved to her, for only this singular and wondrous virgin can produce in union with the Holy Spirit singular and wondrous things.
  3. When the Holy Spirit, her spouse, finds Mary in a soul, he hastens there and enters fully into it. He gives himself generously to that soul according to the place it has given to his spouse. One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not work striking wonders in souls is that he fails to find in them a sufficiently close union with his faithful and inseparable spouse. I say “inseparable spouse”, for from the moment the substantial love of the Father and the Son espoused Mary to form Jesus, the head of the elect, and Jesus in the elect, he has never disowned her, for she has always been faithful and fruitful.
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Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your Faithful. Kindle in us the Fire of Your Love.
Mother Mary, pray for us that we may bring Jesus into the world as you did.
St. Louis de Montfort, pray for us.
 
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This seems awfully close to denying the efficacy of the Sacrament of Confirmation, instead making the presence of the Holy Spirit in a soul conditional upon that person’s degree of Marian spirituality. However much De Montfort may have meant to an earlier age, his writings today seem frankly over the top in terms of how he expresses his Marian theology.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
This seems awfully close to denying the efficacy of the Sacrament of Confirmation, instead making the presence of the Holy Spirit in a soul conditional upon that person’s degree of Marian spirituality.
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Are you coming to this conclusion strictly from what the OP has quoted?

I’m guessing you’re looking at this part of De Montefort’s quote:

“for only this singular and wondrous virgin can produce in union with the Holy Spirit singular and wondrous things.”

St. M. Kolbe:
“It is above all an interior union, a union of her essence with the “essence” of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, lives in her. This was true from the first instant of her existence. It was always true; it will always be true. In what does this life of the Spirit in Mary consist? He himself is uncreated Love in her; the Love of the Father and of the Son, the Love by which God loves himself, the very love of the Most Holy Trinity. He is a fruitful Love, a “Conception.” Among creatures made in God’s image the union brought about by married love is the most intimate of all”

And still more from St Kolbe:
“the Holy Spirit lives in the soul of the Immaculata, in the depths of her very being. He makes her fruitful, from the very first instant of her existence, all during her life, and for all eternity. This eternal “Immaculate Conception” (which is the Holy Spirit) produces in an immaculate manner divine life itself in the womb (or depths) of Mary’s soul, making her the Immaculate Conception, the human Immaculate Conception.”

Her own name, Immaculate Conception, is also the name of The Holy Spirit. It’s a spousal union, and so, the sacraments can’t be separated out from Marian spirituality. They are in themselves what Marian spirituality is, whether we identify Our Lady’s face in them or not.
 
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Veneration and worship are synonyms.

The concept of her being in “our” soul is giving her the power of God to be omnipresent.
She can be in your mind (thoughts).
She can be in your heart (love).
She cannot be in your soul. The soul is the repository of the spirit. She has just one spirit .
She cannot duplicate it. To do so she would be creating new spirits, again something only God can do.
 
She is in our souls because God allows her to be, that she may bring us closer to Him.
 
NO they are not.
BTW, ever been to England? They call judges there “Your worship.” Do you think they ‘worship judges as Gods’ or do you think that the English language might, just might, be more broad than your coterie’s narrow and recent 'redefinition"?
 
blanchardman said:
can she create spirits
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Im guessing these questions are rhetorical, but the answer is no. If you are getting this understanding from the term “Spiritual Mother,” she can no more create on her own than a mother can create a body on her own.
 
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blanchardman said:
Veneration and worship are synonyms.

The concept of her being in “our” soul is giving her the power of God to be omnipresent.
She can be in your mind (thoughts).
She can be in your heart (love).
She cannot be in your soul. The soul is the repository of the spirit. She has just one spirit .
She cannot duplicate it. To do so she would be creating new spirits, again something only God can do.
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Veneration and worship can mean the same thing but also mean different things. It depends on context. He catholic use of veneration does not mean worship but hog tepee this and honour.

I will not limit the ability of God in His creatures. Especially in the Mother of God.
 
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Mary is absolutely essential to our salvation, both in historical-theological terms and in reality. She is, in fact, the Bridge between humanity and divinity, because She is the Vessel of the Incarnation, from Whom the Word of God was made flesh. She is the Gate of Heaven, through Whom passed the Creator God Himself. She is the Ark of the Covenant because in Her resided the Lawgiver. She is the Mediatrix of our Salvation because She gave us the Mediator. She is Co-Redemptrix because His Flesh and Blood were and are Hers.

I could go on, but I honestly believe that ignorance of Mary is ignorance of Christ. I’m not at all sympathetic to the Modernist position of devaluing the Mariological Tradition in order to be more palatable to non-Catholic viewpoints. It’s not worship, but it is the highest level of veneration that one can give to any creature, for She surpasses them all.

Praised be Jesus and Mary.
 
Catholics do not worship Mary. We know that she is a creature of God, though highly favored.

I’ve heard her described as a clear pane of glass that allows the Blessed Trinity to shine through perfectly. She is nothing and she knows it. God is All.
 
Dear Mattapoisett64,

St. Louis de Montfort was given grace for the Church, even as many other saints who wrote before Him. Truth is for every age and does not change. His style may be different but the substance of his work is sound.

The Holy Spirit is given to us at Baptism with Sanctifying Grace which infuses into our souls the Life of the Trinity. We are intended to grow in union with God after Baptism, and each sacrament after Baptism gives us that opportunity to grow in grace. There are souls however who do not grow spiritually for varying reasons, and St. Louis being a priest was well aware of Catholics who were not growing in grace. There is no denial of the efficacy of the Sacrament of Confirmation in what the saint has written, but rather an encouragement toward a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit, through Mary.

This chapter in De Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is only the beginning of the treatise and I encourage you to read the entire work slowly and prayerfully, more than once. St. John Paul II wrote that his reading of St. Louis De Montfort’s treatise was a turning point in his young life.

St. Teresa of Calcutta also encouraged her Missionaries of Charity to read St. Louis de Montfort. These two saints did not consider St. Louis de Montfort’s writings to be “over the top”.
 
And Christ came to us through Mary. Christ, being God, does not change. He continues to come to us through Mary, which in no way takes away His supreme salvific role or His Godhood.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
However much De Montfort may have meant to an earlier age, his writings today seem frankly over the top in terms of how he expresses his Marian theology.
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The problems were not simply for today. His writings problems for theologians who were contemporaries to de Montfort.

His are spiritual writings which can be helpful. They can also be harmful, when they are not viewed through the lens of sound Mariology. Hyperbole and, above all, lack of clarity in formulation will always be problematic for theological analysis.

Pope Saint John Paul II was deeply impacted by de Montfort’s spirituality but, in carefully evaluating the matter, judged de Montfort should not be named a doctor of the Church when that was under consideration.
 
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I would think he is referring to Special actual graces from the Holy Spirit… not the presence guaranteed by the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.
 
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