"...Where was I when was not in communion with You?" - St. Augustine

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers ad Sisters,

From St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

1. Nevertheless, my dear Master, the majority of learned scholars could not be further from devotion to Your Mother, or show more indifference to it even if all I have just said were true. Keep me from their way of thinking and acting and let me share Your feelings of gratitude, esteem, respect and love for Your holy Mother. I can then love and glorify You all the more, because I will be imitating and following You more closely.
2. As though I had said nothing so far to further her honour, grant me now the grace to praise her more worthily, in spite of all her enemies who are also Yours. I can then say to them boldly with the saints, “Let no one presume to expect mercy from God, who offends His holy Mother.”
3. So that I may obtain from Your mercy a genuine devotion to your blessed Mother and spread it throughout the whole world, help me to love You wholeheartedly, and for this intention accept the earnest prayer I offer with St. Augustine and all who truly love You.

Prayer of Saint Augustine

O Jesus Christ, You are my Father, my merciful God, my great King, my good Shepherd, my only Master, my best helper, my beloved friend of overwhelming beauty, my living Bread, my eternal priest. You are my guide to my heavenly home, my one true light, my holy joy, my true way, my shining wisdom, my unfeigned simplicity, the peace and harmony of my soul, my perfect safeguard, my bounteous inheritance, my everlasting salvation.

My loving Lord, Jesus Christ, why have I ever loved or desired anything else in my life but you, my God? Where was I when I was not in communion with You? From now on, I direct all my desires to be inspired by You and centered on You. I direct them to press forward for they have tarried long enough, to hasten towards their goal, to seek the one they yearn for.

O Jesus, let him who does not love you be accursed, and filled with bitterness. O gentle Jesus, let every worthy feeling of mine show You love, take delight in You and admire you. O God of my heart and my inheritance, Christ Jesus, may my heart mellow before the influence of Your spirit and may You live in me. May the flame of Your love burn in my soul. May it burn incessantly on the altar of my heart. May it glow in my innermost being. May it spread its heat into the hidden recesses of my soul and on the day of my consummation may I appear before you consumed in Your love. Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with Jesus through Mary!

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear patricius,

Thanks for your “heart” which signifies your continual appreciation for the gifts God gave to St. Louis de Montfort, for the Church and for all those seeking Truth. It is good for all of us who are reading and “listening” to his treatise on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” to be thankful to God for the Wisdom He gives His Saints, and perhaps especially those to whom God has given a special devotion to His Mother, like St. Louis de Montfort and closer to our time, Pope St. John Paul II, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta whose feast we celebrate tomorrow, and St. Maximilian Kolbe.

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Salibi,

Thank you for your “heart” as well. It is always a blessing to know someone else appreciates the writings of St. Louis de Montfort. More and more I am learning how “prophetic” many of his words are, as I can “hear” with the ears of my heart, how much God gave St. Louis de Montfort not only for the Church in his time, but for the Church in every time. These recent threads on “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” have helped me to ponder more slowly what St. St. Louis de Montfort was given by God to write for us all. Taking just a few paragraphs each day has enabled me to spend more time and to go deeper.

Especially it seems to me, the Church needs to recover the devotion to Mary which was given to us first by Jesus when He said from His Cross to John and to us all:

Behold your Mother

So many in today’s world are so busy with “selfies” they forget God and His Mother. It amazes me that so many Catholics have begun to neglect Mary in particular. May God forgive us and turn us back to Him and to the Mother He gave to us!

 

[patricius79]

Thank you, Maria Christi. Yes, St. Louis seems to have compassion even on the saints, when they didn’t have as great a devotion to Mary as saints like St. Bonaventure, St. Francis De Sales, St. Bernard, St. Ephrem, etc. When Jesus said that He came to set the world on fire, he was referring to His Love in the Immaculate Heart of Mary.