True Devotion to Mary – (2)

Last week I wrote True Devotion to Mary and this is a continuation of what I hope to be a series of posts that will bring to light the truths and prophecies of Saint Louis De Montfort.  If you happen to have missed reading last week’s post I strongly encourage your doing so before you skip to this one.  There is a sort of order of things in De Montfort’s writing that will make more sense if read in the correct sequence.  And as I said in my last post, everything written in burgundy font is quoted directly from his book; my personal remarks and insights are in black font.

True Devotion to Mary – CHAPTER ONE

Necessity of the Blessed Virgin And of Devotion to Her

14. I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory.  He has but to will in order to do everything.

15. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now – that is, God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her – we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct.

ARTICLE ONE: Mary Was Necessary to God in the Incarnation of the Word

16. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-begotten to the world.  Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Lk. 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues.  The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands.  He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her.

The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary.  God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary; but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court.

17. God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.

18. God the Son descended into her virginal womb as the New Adam into His terrestrial paradise, to take His pleasure there, and to work in secret marvels of grace.

God made Man found His liberty in seeing Himself imprisoned in her womb.  He made His omnipotence shine forth in letting Himself be carried by that humble maiden.  He found His glory and His Father’s in hiding His splendors from all creatures here below, and revealing them to Mary only.  He glorified His independence and His majesty in depending on that sweet Virgin in His conception, in His birth, in His presentation in the temple, in His hidden life of thirty years, and even in His death, where she was to be present in order that He might make with her but one same sacrifice and be immolated to the Eternal Father by her consent, just as Isaac of old was offered by Abraham’s consent to the will of God.  It is she who nourished Him, supported Him, brought Him up and then sacrificed Him for us.

Oh, admirable and incomprehensible dependence of God, which the Holy Ghost could not pass over in silence in the Gospel, although He has hidden from us nearly all the admirable things which the Incarnate Wisdom did in His hidden life – as if He would enable us, by His revelation of that at least, to understand something of its excellence and infinite glory!  Jesus Christ gave more glory to God the Father by submission to His Mother during those thirty years than He would have given Him in converting the whole world by the working of the most stupendous miracles.  Oh, how highly we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example of Jesus Christ, our sole Exemplar!

19. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary.  He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth, but it was by Mary’s word.  No sooner had she spoken than John was sanctified; and this was His first miracle of grace.

At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer; and this was His first miracle of nature.  He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.

20. God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God – that is to say, not producing another Divine Person – is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused.  It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece, which is God made Man, and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head.  This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.

21. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself.  For inasmuch as He is God, He has the same fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the Father and the Son; only He does not bring it into action, as he does not produce another Divine Person.  But what we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady, though He had no absolute need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing in her and by her Jesus Christ and His members – a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians.

True Devotion to Mary and the Holy Rosary

If you pay close attention to the passages above you will notice that De Montfort is continually making reference to some of the mysteries within the Holy Rosary.  I’m not suggesting that this was intentional because of course I would have no way of knowing that.  But it certainly is interesting that he brings the mysteries of the Rosary to light by way of explaining Mary’s role in the Incarnation of the Word.  Also, it is interesting to note that one of the mysteries mentioned is of the Luminous Mysteries which weren’t yet a part of the Rosary in De Montfort’s time!

In Section 18. De Montfort speaks of Jesus glorifying His independence and His majesty through His dependence on Mary from His conception to His death in the following:

- conception (Joyful Mysteries: The Annunciation)

- birth (Joyful Mysteries: The Nativity)

- presentation in temple (Joyful Mysteries: The Presentation)

- death (Sorrowful Mysteries: The Crucifixion)

In Section 19. De Montfort goes on to speak of Jesus’ will “to begin His miracles by Mary” and he reminds us of these first two miracles:

- sanctification of St. John in Elizabeth’s womb (Joyful Mysteries: The Visitation) – FIRST MIRACLE OF GRACE

- marriage ceremony at Cana (Luminous Mysteries: The Wedding of Cana) – FIRST MIRACLE OF NATURE

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