St. Montfort's Devotion To The Blessed Virgin

[SaeculaSaeculorum]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post here. I had a written a similar topic on reddit but wanted more view points on this since I am struggling with it. Perhaps someone's advice will send me in the right direction.

To start, I had been suggested to read St. Montfort's book [u]Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary[/u] by my confessor. I started reading it and I felt like the author was not only taking his devotion too far, but also felt that this devotion was an end in itself. I know that couldn't be the case considering that this man was made a saint by the Catholic church and Pope John Paul II commented on how important this book was to him. I won't say I think any of what I had read is outright heretical, but I don't like the direction it is moving in - as if too much focus is taken off her Son and off God. I wrote my priest about my concern and one of his comments was that my love for Mary was probably just a counterfeit of true devotion. I took that pretty hard, actually. Still, I want any advice on how I should be reading this book, and how I should re-evaluate my approach to our mother Mary.

Peace of Christ,
Dan

[tinytherese]

Perhaps you'll like the book more as you go farther along. I know that St. Louis talks about how devotion to Mary IS paying honor to Jesus. I'd say to pray to the Holy Spirit for understanding and openness to what you are reading.

[Nihil Obstat]

I haven't yet had a chance to read St. Louis de Montfort's writings (I have them waiting on my e-reader), but from what I hear his stuff can be very confusing for someone not prepared for it. Sort of like how with St. John of the Cross, you need to be introduced gradually, or else you won't quite get it.
Is seem to remember reading a couple articles (can't for the life of me remember which ones) about how St. Montfort can seem very radical, even excessively so at first glance, but how he needs to be understood in the proper context.
Wish I could offer you something more substantive.

[Fides_et_Ratio]

Please keep reading it. Carefully.

[quote]Jesus Christ our Saviour, true God and true Man, ought to be the last end of all our other devotions, else they are false and delusive. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, of all things. We labor not, as the Apostle says, except to render every man perfect in Jesus Christ; because it is in Him alone that the whole plenitude of the Divinity dwells together with all the other plenitudes of graces, virtues, and perfections. It is in Him alone that we have been blessed with all spiritual benediction; and He is our only Master, who has to teach us; our only Lord on whom we ought to depend; our only Head to whom we must be united; our only Model to whom we should conform ourselves; our only Physician who can heal us; our only Shepherd who can feed us; our only Way who can lead us; our only Truth whom we must believe; our only Life who can animate us; and our only All in all things who can satisfy us. There has been no other name given under Heaven, except the name of Jesus, by which we can be saved. God has laid no other foundation of our salvation, our perfection or our glory, than Jesus Christ. Every building which is not built on that firm rock is founded upon the moving sand, and sooner or later infallibly will fall. Every one of the faithful who is not united to Him, as a branch to the stock of the vine, shall fall, shall wither, and shall be fit only to be cast into the fire. Outside of Him there exists nothing but error, falsehood, iniquity, futility, death and damnation. But if we are in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is in us, we have no condemnation to fear. Neither the angels of Heaven nor the men of earth nor the devils of Hell nor any other creature can injure us; because they cannot separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, we can do all things; we can render all honor and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost; we can become perfect ourselves, and be to our neighbor a good odor of eternal life (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

If, then, we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ…
[/quote]
(nos. 61 & 62)

[Seven77]

yes---read it carefully and persevere---it will change your life and the devil knows this. i am utterly convinced that I will have exceedingly more joy in heaven because of this book and devotion. message me on anything you are having trouble with... i'd be more that glad to help.

[SaeculaSaeculorum]

Thank you, Fides_et_Ratio. I was familiar with later passages like that, and even the first passage makes the claim that God in His infiniteness does not need Mary in any way.

Thank you, Seven77. I had put reading it on the back burner and decided to pray about it, but when I pick it up again, you will probably hear from me.

[Fides_et_Ratio]

I am glad it seems you actually had read parts of it... have you finished it? I am also around if you have questions/comments as you are reading. Did you talk to your confessor about the book? He would be able to give you direction as well.

[PennyLane]

I agree with Seven77 and Fides_et_Ratio... persevere.

My mother always says that those who have a strong devotion to Mary never stray from the Church. She takes you in!

Again, I offer any assistance and discussion if you'd like.

Good luck and God bless!

[Maria]

I remember that I tried to read it some years ago and had a similar reaction... but then, Mary had never seemed a very real presence in my life, and I never felt that I really knew her. That has slowly been changing, mostly over the past school year (and possibly as the fruit of the daily rosaries that God 'tricked' me into committing to), and so now I want to try reading it again.

[SaeculaSaeculorum]

Thank you, PennyLane. For now, I will entrust everything St. Montfort says to Our Lady and hopefully she will help me understand what he was trying to say about her.

Maria, I had also stopped reading it. You can read it online free here: [url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/...rt/truedevo.htm[/url] Though I personally always like having a paper copy of what I read.

Edited June 2, 2011 by SaeculaSaeculorum

[Sarah147]

I highly recommend starting off with "Devotion to Our Lady" by Fr. Manelli FI. It is much simpler and easier to understand. It just brings you to understanding proper devotion much better than starting off with something like St. Montfort.

I would suggest that anytime you think it is too much devotion to Mary, just remember that God--yes, GOD!--chose to come to us through Mary. That elevates her to the highest Saint! She is the Mother of God! It's incredible to ponder.

Edited June 3, 2011 by JoyfulLife

[ryansouf504]

Dan,

Thank you for bringing up your concerns. Here is a quote of JPII regarding the book: "[font="Verdana"][size="2"][b][color=black]I myself, in the years of my youth, found reading this book a great help. “There I found the answers to my questions”, for at one point I had feared that if my devotion to Mary “became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ” ([/color][/b][i][color=black]Gift and Mystery[/color][/i][b][color=black]). Under the wise guidance of St. Louis Marie, I realized that if one lives the mystery of Mary in Christ, this risk does not exist. In fact, this Saint's Mariological thought “is rooted in the mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the Word of God” ([/color][/b][i][color=black]ibid.[/color][/i][b])."

[/b]Please do not be afraid to have a true devotion to Mary. As the old saying goes, "you can never love Mary more then Jesus did."

Peace,

Ryan
[/size][/font]

[JenDeMaria]

Fides comment is exactly the response I would have made to your initial question, Saecula -- I would just add that it is also just as important to consider that Saint Louis Marie penned his treatise in the late [i]seventeenth century[/i] and his writing style is florid, bold and hyper-romantic, as was typical of his period. Since his writing style is, then, by our standards a bit over-the-top, it would be easy to mistake his message as being over-the-top.

Think of it this way -- some people make excessive use of exclamation marks (like this!!!!!). I would catch myself doing this when I organized a social group and sent out regular cheery newsletters to our members (Hi, gang!!!). However, when I would then send an e-mail to, say, our parish DRE who is a staid, bookish 60 year old man, I always seemed to catch him a bit off guard with my tone. To some people, an abundance of exclamation marks is indicative of a certain zest for life. To others, the same abundance is a sign that their author is having a nervous breakdown and needs to be permanently restricted to a caffeine-free diet. In order to discern the actual intent of the author, its necessary to be familiar with the authors style and tone, eh?

Saint Louis Marie wrote other works -- it might be helpful to read The Secret of the Rosary or Letter to the Friends of the Cross, first, and then go back to True Devotion. The Secret of the Rosary is even more florid than True Devotion but, all in all, it's a classic work on the rosary and should give you a good handle on Saint Louis Marie's style while staying firmly within familiar doctrinal boundaries. Friends of the Cross, on the other hand, can be a bit challenging in that Saint Louis Marie really was an all-or-nothing sort of person who lived as a penniless itenerant preacher who took the evangelical counsels seriously -- and his letters to his fellow friends of the cross reflect this. You will find Saint Louis Marie's absolute christological foundations in it, but there's a good chance it may make you even more uncomfortable than True Devotion did! It is widely available online, however, as at EWTN.com [url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/Montfort/LFCROSS.HTM"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/Montfort/LFCROSS.HTM[/url] or you can purchase it for $3 on Amazon.com.

[SaeculaSaeculorum]

Thank you two for the replies. I ran across a paper copy at the Eucharistic Conference in Atlanta, GA last Saturday, so now I am the proud (but not too much) owner of a real book. It gives me a bit more motivation to read.




ryansouf504, it's good to know JPII had the same struggles as myself when he read it. I will have to ask for his guidance as well when I read it.




JenDeMaria, thanks for the perspective. I read the introduction of your link. He really does have an odd style. "Would to God I could use the blood of my veins rather than the ink of my pen! " Hmmm. Can you explain why in the first part of the introduction he says he would not like to speak and desires instead to write?

[MissScripture]

[quote name='JenDeMaria' timestamp='1309307658' post='2259975']
To some people, an abundance of exclamation marks is indicative of a certain zest for life. To others, the same abundance is a sign that their author is having a nervous breakdown and needs to be permanently restricted to a caffeine-free diet. In order to discern the actual intent of the author, its necessary to be familiar with the authors style and tone, eh?

[/quote]