"With Mary, live joyfully, ..." -- Thomas a Kempis

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“With Mary live joyfully, with Mary bear all your trials, with Mary labour, with Mary pray, with Mary take your recreation, with Mary take your repose. With Mary seek Jesus; in your arms bear Jesus and with Jesus and Mary fix your dwelling at Nazareth. With Mary go to Jerusalem, remain near the Cross of Jesus, bury yourself with Jesus. With Jesus and Mary rise again, with Jesus and Mary mount to Heaven, with Jesus and Mary live and die.” (Thomas a Kempis: Sermon to Novices)
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I was so blessed by this quote from Thomas a Kempis ( perhaps better known as the author of The Imitation of Christ) that I wanted to share it. The quote came at the end of a longer context in Chapter 6 of the Handbook of the Legion of Mary, which I may also post at another time. This quote, however, is so powerful in its brevity and depth, it reminded me of the Mysteries of the Rosary and how we can “live” those mysteries every day with Jesus and Mary.
 
👍 There’s a collection you can get of his writings called “The Imitation of Mary”, worth every page it’s written on.
 
Dear Path_Finder,

Thanks for your reply. I was unfamiliar with this author and book so I looked further and found this at The Catholic Company site, under Product Description:
…The Imitation of Mary by Alexander de Rouville–modern version of the Companion Volume to the Imitation of Christ. The author follows the Blessed Virgin through the different mysteries and circumstances of her life; from her Immaculate Conception to her Assumption into heaven. At each point he reflects on her conduct and her sentiments.
Here are the titles of the Contents:
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Book 1: Life and Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary From Her Immaculate Conception to the Birth of Jesus.
Book 2: Life and Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary From the Birth of Her Divine Son, Jesus, to His Death.
Book 3: Life and Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary From the Death of Jesus to His Ascension.
Book 4: Our Sentiments Toward Mary.
Hardcover, 319 pp.
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Also found this information about the author:
…The author was in fact a French Jesuit, Alexandre Joseph de Rouville [born at Lyons in 1716.] After the Society of Jesus had been suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, he took the name Abbé d’Hérouville, thus assimilating himself, as far as title went, to the secular clergy. But even before the suppression by the Pope, Louis XIV had expelled the Society of Jesus from France in 1764; for this reason when the Imitation of Mary was first published in 1768 it had to appear anonymously.
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The book quickly won a wide readership in France and Belgium and was translated into many languages. The first Italian translation, for example, was published at Padua in 1772, only four years after the book first appeared. – more can be read HERE
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Reading from St. Louis De Montfort’s “True Devotion” yesterday, I was blessed especially by his words on the motives for consecrating ourselves totally to Jesus through Mary :
…152. This devotion is a smooth, short, perfect and sure way of attaining union with our Lord, in which Christian perfection consists.
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(a) This devotion is a smooth way. It is the path which Jesus Christ opened up in coming to us and in which there is no obstruction to prevent us reaching him. It is quite true that we can attain to divine union by other roads, but these involve many more crosses and exceptional setbacks and many difficulties that we cannot easily overcome. We would have to pass through spiritual darkness, engage in struggles for which we are not prepared, endure bitter agonies, scale precipitous mountains, tread upon painful thorns, and cross frightful deserts. But when we take the path of Mary, we walk smoothly and calmly.
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It is true that on our way we have hard battles to fight and serious obstacles to overcome, but Mary, our Mother and Queen, stays close to her faithful servants. She is always at hand to brighten their darkness, clear away their doubts, strengthen them in their fears, sustain them in their combats and trials. Truly, in comparison with other ways, this virgin road to Jesus is a path of roses and sweet delights. There have been some saints, not very many, such as St. Ephrem, St. John Damascene, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Bonaventure, and St. Francis de Sales, who have taken this smooth path to Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit, the faithful Spouse of Mary, made it known to them by a special grace. The other saints, who are the greater number, while having a devotion to Mary, either did not enter or did not go very far along this path. That is why they had to undergo harder and more dangerous trials…
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The Catechism confirms this in its explanation of “private revelations” in paragraph 67:
67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called “private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.
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We can be very grateful for the long line of saints who have helped us through the centuries to grow in our knowledge of Mary. I continually return to St. Louis de Montfort as he is so steeped in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church, but I am always happy to read more from others who have found in their prayerful devotion to Mary that “smooth, short, perfect and sure way of attaining union with our Lord, in which Christian perfection consists”.
 
MariaChristi said:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I was so blessed by this quote from Thomas a Kempis ( perhaps better known as the author of The Imitation of Christ) that I wanted to share it. The quote came at the end of a longer context in Chapter 6 of the Handbook of the Legion of Mary, which I may also post at another time. This quote, however, is so powerful in its brevity and depth, it reminded me of the Mysteries of the Rosary and how we can “live” those mysteries every day with Jesus and Mary.
Click to expand...
👍
 
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