by
Damien F. Mackey
—————————————————————————————–
“The key to De Montfort’s
Marian spirituality is that he considered Our Lady to be the infallible and
chosen gate to the heart of Christ To Jesus through Mary: it is Christ Himself
Who is at the centre of True Devotion”.
—————————————————————————————–
Arguably the best books ever written about the
Mother of God are Saint Louis de Montfort’s Treatise on True Devotion to the
Blessed Virgin and his The Secret of Mary.
True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is one of the greatest and most celebrated
books ever written about Our Lady. Praised by popes, mystics and theologians,
this profound and powerful book presents Mary as the essential and infallible
key to the heart of Jesus. Nowhere will you find a deeper and more
life-changing book on that quintessentially Catholic doctrine: the role of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Christian and the life of the Church.
Unpublished during the saint’s life time, it has enjoyed the endorsement of the
many outstanding popes the Church has been blessed with since its discovery in
1842. John Paul II, in particular, was its tireless champion, crediting True
Devotion with a turning-point in his spiritual life, adopting his motto, Totus
tuus, from St. Louis. The key to De Montfort’s Marian spirituality is that he
considered Our Lady to be the infallible and chosen gate to the heart of Christ
To Jesus through Mary: it is Christ Himself Who is at the centre of True
Devotion.
[End of quote]
In recent times, Fr. Michael Gaitley (MIC) has made
the True Devotion more easy to grasp, more user-friendly and simpler to
practice for the sake of modern readers, post-Vatican II, with his 33 Days
to Morning Glory (A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Marian
Consecration, 2013). Though lacking the depth of Saint Louis’s writings
immersed as they are in biblical wisdom, Fr. Gaitley’s excellent book
nonetheless contains inspiring passages from four giants of Marian
spirituality: St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Blessed Mother
Teresa of Calcutta, and Blessed (soon to be St.) Pope John Paul II.
Unforgettable here are Mother Teresa’s heart-rending
words on the thirst of Christ.
The whole point of True Devotion is that we
sinners ought never to approach Almighty God, especially the Eucharistic Lord,
without being clothed in Mary’s garments. We must put on Mary so to speak,
through the practice of True Devotion, so as not to be rejected by God. Mary is
the grace filled vessel of Almighty God. For this reason we find that many of
her titles present her as a receptacle for the Divine, or a holy edifice, or a
gateway, as already stated. Consider, for instance, this series of titles in
the well-known Litany of Loreto:
Seat
of wisdom,
Cause
of our joy,
Spiritual
vessel,
Vessel
of honor,
Singular
vessel of devotion,
Mystical
rose,
Tower
of David,
Tower
of ivory.
House
of gold,
Ark of
the covenant,
Gate
of heaven.
Saint Louis, using patristic terms, adds to
these titles when writing of the great Marian saints to come at the end times
(the likes of Maximilian Kolbe, Mother Teresa and John Paul II). She is, he
says, “the Temple of Solomon and the City of God” (#’s 47-48):
…. this [Marian awakening] will happen especially towards the end of the
world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise
up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the
cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs. ….
48. These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to
oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be
exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light,
strengthened by her food, guided by her spirit, supported by her arm, sheltered
under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other.
With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and
their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries,
sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of
the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin, who
is called by the Fathers of the Church the Temple of Solomon and the City of
God. By word and example they will draw all men to a true devotion to her and
though this will make many enemies, it will also bring about many victories and
much glory to God alone. This is what God revealed to St. Vincent Ferrer, that
outstanding apostle of his day, as he has amply shown in one of his works.
This seems to have been foretold by the Holy Spirit in Psalm 58: “The
Lord will reign in Jacob and all the ends of the earth. They will be converted
towards evening and they will be as hungry as dogs and they will go around the
city to find something to eat.” This city around which men will roam at the end
of the world seeking conversion and the appeasement of the hunger they have for
justice is the most Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Holy Spirit the City
of God. By word and example they will draw all men to a true devotion to her
and though this will make many enemies, it will also bring about many victories
and much glory to God alone. ….
[End of quote]
Indeed, Saint Louis de Montfort himself ‘made
many enemies’, especially amongst the Jansenists, for, as we read at the site Sic
Semper Tyrannis, in relation to this particular section of the True
Devotion (http://sicsempertyrannisjmj.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/saint-louis-marie-de-montfort-and.html):
These striking words were penned by [Saint Louis] in 1712 in La Rochelle
on the West Coast of France as part of the greatest book ever written about Our
Lady. Just four year later on this day [April 28] in 1716 our Saint would pass
to his eternal reward, he was just 43. He had been poisoned by Jansenists a few
years earlier and never one to worry about his health (for he was an incredibly
strong and tough man) he never took a break and he continued his work preaching
to the faithful throughout the countryside of southern France. He was one of
those great Saints who burned themselves out early in life by their intense
love for God.
[End of quote]
The patristic truth about Mary as God’s holy
Temple (his House of Gold) does not spoil the fact that Jesus Christ himself is
“the new Temple of God”. Pope Benedict XVI explained this beautifully in his
2011 homily on the Feast of the Presentation of the LORD (our emphasis added, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20110202_vita-consacrata_en.html):
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On today’s Feast we contemplate the Lord Jesus, whom Mary and Joseph
bring to the Temple “to present him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22). This Gospel scene
reveals the mystery of the Son of the Virgin, the consecrated One of the Father
who came into the world to do his will faithfully (cf. Heb 10:5-7).
Simeon identifies him as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Lk
2:32) and announces with prophetic words his supreme offering to God and his
final victory (cf. Lk 2:32-35). This is the meeting point of the two
Testaments, Old and New. Jesus enters the ancient temple; he who is the new
Temple of God: he comes to visit his people, thus bringing to fulfilment
obedience to the Law and ushering in the last times of salvation. ….
[End of quote]
Benedict wrote similarly in his book, Jesus of Nazareth (Part
Two): “The risen Lord is the new Temple, the real meeting place between God and
man”.
Greek Orthodox tradition has placed great emphasis upon the virginal
Mary, the Theotokos, as the very Holy of Holies itself, the finite
dwelling place of the infinite God in his Temple. Far more controversial is
this tradition’s suggestion that the child Mary was actually allowed by the
high priest to enter the very Holy of Holies when she came to the Temple (http://www.monachos.net/conversation/topic/1815-the-theotokos-in-the-holy-of-holies/):
St. Gregory Palamas in his “On the Entry into the Holy of Holies” said
that Mary, from a very young child, grew up at the Temple in the Holy of
Holies.
What is the basis of this story? Why should
we accept it? It seems to me that St. Gregory drew or quoted a mythical
portrait of Mary to make a mystical point, but I think the myth (if this is a
myth) actually weakens his otherwise beautiful homily. It seems this story is
highly imaginative and overdrawn in some Greek fashion, but has no basis in
Scripture nor is it true to any Hebrew customs that I know of.
It seems highly unlikely that a female child would be allowed in the
Holy of Holies when the High Priest himself was allowed in there only once a
year. I do not know of any Hebrew custom that allowed females access to the
inner courts of the Temple, much less the Holy of Holies.
[End of quote]
But was, perhaps, an inspired exception made in
the case of the young Virgin Mary? Such, at least, is the opinion of Dr. Taylor
Marshall (see below). No one would dare say, however, that Mary actually became
a priest – and is there not a lesson here for our times, too? All that Mary
was, even to her becoming Queen of the Apostles, she was never ordained. (Of
course all believers are priests, we are a “kingdom of priests” or a “royal
priesthood”). Pope Francis clearly explains the situation, “the reservation of
the priesthood to males”, in his marvellous apostolic exhortation, Evangelii
Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”):
104. Demands that the legitimate rights of women be respected, based on
the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity, present the Church
with profound and challenging questions which cannot be lightly evaded. The
reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who
gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion, but it
can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too closely identified
with power in general.
It must be remembered that when we speak of sacramental power “we are in
the realm of function, not that of dignity or holiness”.[73] The ministerial priesthood is one means
employed by Jesus for the service of his people, yet our great dignity derives
from baptism, which is accessible to all. The configuration of the priest to
Christ the head – namely, as the principal source of grace – does not imply an
exaltation which would set him above others. In the Church, functions “do not
favour the superiority of some vis-à-vis the others”.[74] Indeed, a woman, Mary, is more important
than the bishops. Even when the function of ministerial priesthood is
considered “hierarchical”, it must be remembered that “it is totally ordered to
the holiness of Christ’s members”.[75] Its key and axis is not power understood as
domination, but the power to administer the sacrament of the Eucharist; this is
the origin of its authority, which is always a service to God’s people. ….
[End of quote]
Edith Stein had also offered some insightful
wisdom concerning the topic of female priests: “If we consider the attitude of
the Lord himself, we understand that he accepted the free loving services of
women for himself and his Apostles, and that women were among his disciples and
most intimate confidants. Yet, he did not grant them the priesthood, not even
to his mother, Queen of Apostles, who was exalted above all humanity in human
perfection and fullness of grace.” (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cw/post.php?id=731)
There is a tragic parallel between the failure
of the French Catholic world, in particular, to embrace the devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Nine First Fridays) in the C18th, and the failure of
Catholics to embrace Fatima, the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the
Five First Saturdays), in the C20th. The consequences of this human ingratitude
towards the superabundant salvific graces of Heaven have been horrendous. Jesus
himself made the connection between the two historical situations in conversation
with Sister Lucia of Fatima:
Like the King of France they
will repent of it, and they will do it, but it will be late. Russia will have
already spread its errors in the world, provoking wars and persecutions against
the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer.
Regarding France we read in the aforementioned Sic
Semper Tyrannis article, in connection with St. Louis de Montfort:
Just 23 years before Montfort wrote True Devotion the King of France had
refused the request of Our Lord, given to him by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque,
to consecrate that great nation, the Eldest Daughter of the Church, to His Most
Sacred Heart.
One hundred years exactly from this refusal God would scourge France for
this refusal by allowing it to be racked with the bloody and terrible French
Revolution, from which France has never recovered.
Did Saint Louis’s missionary efforts help to save a part of France, the
Vendée region?
The only part of France that did not succumb to the errors of the
Revolution, and from which began the Catholic Counter-Revolution, was that very
part of France preached to by [Saint Louis de Montfort]. We know this part of
France as the Vendee.
The most intense period of persecution of Catholics, which was what the
French Revolution principally was: a persecution of the Catholic Church, was
the “Terror” (1793-1794). And this was only ended when on July 17th
1794 sixteen Carmelite nuns offered their lives to end the slaughter. They were
put to death simply for wearing their habits and professing the Catholic faith.
Within two weeks the terror ended.
From the blood of these Blessed Martyrs it seems that an incredible
flourishing of great Saints came about in France, and even elsewhere we began
to see great Saints raised up unlike anything that had been seen for many
centuries and even back to the days of the apostles. ….
[End of quote]
One might ask ‘Where was God?’ in all of these
miseries that have befallen the modern world. Pope Benedict XVI, when he
visited the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, and calling himself “a son of
Germany,” had prayed and asked why God was silent when 1.5 million victims,
most of them Jews, died there during World War Two.
Not surprisingly, this is a question that haunts
the Jewish people, as according to the March issue of the “Jews for Jesus”
newsletter, David Brickner’s article “Where was God?” (http://gallery.mailchimp.com/2bfbf7a67dbcce0ecd251d41c/files/jfjoz_MARCH_14_ENGLISH.1_2.pdf)
One of the most disturbing questions gnawing at the edges of Jewish
consciousness is “Where was God when the six million died?” The horrors of the
Holocaust—from gutwrenching images to mind-boggling numbers of those
slaughtered continue to haunt the imaginations of religious as well as secular
Jewish people around the world.
Brickner finds the answer in the Death and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here is a part of it:
…. That moment in history—when Jesus was alone with the sin of the
world—was the central act of God’s redemptive power. “For He made Him who knew
no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”
(2 Cor. 5:21). And because of this amazing eternal truth, He is still present
in our suffering today, to identify, to suffer with and to provide help, hope
and meaning to those who still suffer.
So Where was God when the six million died? God was mourning over the
dead, the persecuted, and grieved by those persecutors whose minds were
scrambled with the lust for power.
God was suffering along with every humiliation and each act of violence.
The answer to the question is not snappy, nor is it smug and self-satisfied. It
is hard to understand and harder to explain. But it has to do with love that is
really love.
[End of quote]
The Fatima series of apparitions, which has
great relevance to all of this, was conditional – the world was given the
choice between good or evil. On July 13, 1917, Our Lady of the Rosary said
(emphasis added):
You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God
wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say
to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war
[World War I] is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a
worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI.
When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is
the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its
crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy
Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to
My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
…. If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be
peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars
and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father
will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. ….
Unfortunately, the majority of the world chose
the “if not”. David Brickner gives a realistic explanation of choice and its
consequences which we can easily apply to our present subject:
God created human beings to receive His love and to be able to give love
in return. Love must always be a choice. God made us with the power to choose
love, to choose humility and righteousness and peace . . . but in our pride,
the human race has chosen to ignore God’s rightful place, and often even His
existence. That choice
consistently leads to other bad choices, some more hideous than others.
And we become victims of these choices, whether they are our own, or as in the
case of the Nazis, other peoples’.
There was a set of historical decisions that permitted the evil of the
Third Reich to prosper. Decisions to look the other way, to care too little to
see if rumors of the atrocities were true, to look upon the misery of fellow
human beings as “someone else’s business”—all these choices had a part in the
unspeakable horrors. Like Cain, much of the world collectively shrugged and
retorted, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God mourns over the depraved choices of
human beings, but He never violates a person’s right to decide.
And we ask, Where was God?
He was right there all along. God has been present through all our
sufferings. He was in the boxcars, the ghettos, the concentration camps, yes,
even in the showers and the ovens. We believe that as God was present with us,
so was Jesus. And He still is there today identifying with His suffering
people.
[End of quote]
This excellent comment, focussed as it is upon
Jesus Christ, harmonises perfectly with what Pope Francis himself has said
about “the hope that is in us” due to Christ’s Resurrection:
Dear brothers and sisters, we must first firmly have this hope and we
must be visible, clear, brilliant signs of hope in world. The Risen Lord is the
hope that never fails, that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5). God’s hope never
disappoints!. How many times in our life do our hopes vanish, how many times do
the expectations that we carry in our heart not come true! The hope of
Christians is strong, safe and sound in this land, where God has called us to
walk, and is open to eternity, because it is founded on God, who is always
faithful.
We should never forget this; God is always faithful! God is always
faithful! Being risen with Christ through Baptism, with the gift of faith, to
an imperishable inheritance, leads us to increasingly search for the things of
God, to think of Him more, to pray more.
Christianity is not simply a matter of following commandments; it is
about living a new life, being in Christ, thinking and acting like Christ, and
being transformed by the love of Christ, it is allowing Him take possession of
our lives and change them, transform them, to free them from the darkness of
evil and sin.
Dear brothers and sisters, to those who ask us our reasons for the hope
that is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), let us point to the Risen Christ. Let us point
to Him with the proclamation of the Word, but especially with our resurrected
life. Let us show the joy of being children of God, the freedom he gives us to
live in Christ, who is true freedom, freedom from the slavery of evil, sin and
death! In looking to our heavenly home, we will also have a new light and
strength in our commitment and in our daily efforts. It is a precious service
that we give to our world, which is often no longer able to lift its gaze
upwards, it no longer seems able to lift its gaze towards God.
