True Devotion to Maria ... by Blessed Louis de Montfort (d. 1716 A.D.)

Extracts ... for making the Total Consecration to Jesus by Maria

Day 21 of 33 -- The Blessed Virgin as the City of God and
the formation of Catholic Saints

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Introduction:

This sub-section of Section 129, like the others, are extracts from Blessed Louis de Montfort's book: True Devotion to Maria ... this is an absolutely top tier writing on the Blessed Virgin. The extracts from True Devotion on these sub-sections are the ones specifically called out by Louis de Montfort ... as part of the daily readings (of a four week devotional) when making the Total Consecration to Maria.

We cannot identify or call Blessed Louis de Montfort a Saint because ... anti-Pope "Pius XII" had no Catholic jurisdiction to make Saints since he was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church for heresy. I list selected heresy of anti-Pope "Pius XII" on Section 20.2 of this site. This Catholic Dogma on automatic excommunication for heresy or for physical participation in a heretic cult (such as the vatican-2 jew-heretic cult) is listed on Section 13.2 of this site.

The Beatification of Louis de Montfort was made by Pope Leo XIII in 1888.

Subjects discussed here include ...

1.  Maria's part in the sanctification of souls ... a sanctified soul is one which is baptized in water and believes the Catholic faith whole and inviolate. See Section 98 of this site ... that God knows our every thought.

2.  Maria's perogatives in the order of grace ... the development of the just.

3.  Maria as the City of God.

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Start writings from True Devotion to Maria ... titles and headings may be many pages prior to the extract ...

Part I

On devotion to our Blessed Lady in General

I. Excellence and necessity of Devotion to our Blessed Lady

The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily in an invisible manner throughout the whole Church (Note: The Church has no buildings at this time), and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ.

God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters, and He named it the sea (mare). He has made an assemblage of all His graces, and He has called it Mary (Maria). This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty, of splendour, of rarity, and of preciousness, even to His own Son; and this immense treasury is none other than Maria, whom the Saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich.

Note: Regarding the text ... "all men are made rich" ... the only men who are made rich are those who cooperate with the grace they receive to bring their souls to the state of sanctification (water baptism and believing the Catholic Dogmas) ... without this free will cooperation they remain poor heretics and apostates.

God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He has acquired by His Life and by His Death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues; and He has made her the treasuress of all that His Father has given Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly.

Note: Heretics ... when you get the actual graces to leave one or more sins you have been laboring under ... those graces originate with God, but were placed into your soul by the Blessed Virgin.

To Maria, His faithful Spouse, God the Holy Spirit has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispensatrix of all He possesses, in such sort that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills, and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Spirit gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the Will of God, who has willed that we should have every thing in Maria; so that she who impoverished, humbled, and hid herself even to the abyss of nothingness by her profound humility her whole life long, should now be enriched, and exalted by the Most High. Such are the sentiments of the Church and the Holy Fathers.

Note 1: Regarding the text ... "to whom she wills" ... all persons recieve the graces they need to get to Heaven but they must cooperate with those graces. At the same time, the amount of grace in the souls of those who are in a sanctified state (baptized in water and believe the Catholic Dogmas) is not equal, so that you have some people doing more works of charity than others.

Note 2: Regarding the text ... "as much as she wills" ... it is De Fide Dogma that amount of grace in the souls of those who are in a sanctified state (baptized in water and believe the Catholic Dogmas) is not equal, so that you have some people doing more works of charity than others. It is also De Fide Dogma that one can increase grace by works of charity.

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If I were speaking to the free-thinkers of these times, I would prove what I have said so simply, drawing it out more at length, and confirming it by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, quoting the original passages, and adducing various solid reasons, which maybe seen at length in the book of Fr. Poire (La Triple Couronne de la Sainte Vierge). But as I speak particularly to the poor and simple, who being of good-will, and having more faith than the common run of scholars, believe more simply and so more meritoriously, I content myself with putting out the truth quite simply, without stopping to quote the original passages, which they would not understand. Nevertheless, without making much research, I shall not fail from time to time to bring forward some of them. But let us now go on with our subject.

Inasmuch as grace perfects nature, and glory perfects grace, it is certain that our Lord is still, in Heaven, as much the Son of Maria as He was on earth; and that, consequently, He has preserved the most perfect obedience and submission of all children towards the best of all mothers. But we must take great pains not to conceive of this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Maria is infinitely below her Son, who is God, and therefore she does not command Him, as a mother here below would command her child, who is below her. Maria, being altogether transformed into (Note: That is in complete union with) God by grace, and by the glory which transforms all the Saints into (i.e. union with) Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing which is contrary to the Eternal and Immutable Will of God. When we read, then, in the writings of SS. Bernard, Bernardine, Bonaventure, and others, that in Heaven and on earth every thing, even to God Himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean to say that the authority which God has been well pleased to give her is so great, that it seems as if she has the same power as God, and that her prayers and petitions are so powerful with God, that they always pass for commandments with His Majesty, who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is always humble and conformed to His Will.

If Moses, by the force of his prayer, arrested the anger of God against the Israelites (Note: They weren't jews, see Section 39.1), in a manner so powerful that the Most High and infinitely merciful Lord, being unable to resist him, told him to let Him alone, that He might be angry with and punish that rebellious people, what must we not with much greater reason think of the prayer of the humble Maria, that worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful with His Majesty than the prayers and intercessions of all the Angels and Saints both in Heaven and on earth ?

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Maria commands in the heavens the Angels and the Blessed. As a recompense for her profound humility, God has given her the power and permission to fill with Saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride. Such has been the will of the Most High, who exalts the humble, that Heaven, earth, and Hell bend with good will or bad will to the commandments of the humble Maria, whom He has made sovereign of Heaven and earth, general of His armies, treasurer of His treasures, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest marvels, restorer of the human race, mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and His triumphs.

God the Father wishes to have children by Maria till the consummation of the world; and He has said to her these words, In Jacob inhabita - "Dwell in Jacob" - that is to say, Make your dwelling and residence in My predestinated children, figured by Jacob, and not in the reprobate children of the devil, figured by Esau.

Note 1: The true and Catholic definition of: predestined ... is simply that God knows in advance who is going to cooperate with the graces they receive so that they can get to Heaven and those who will not cooperate with these graces. The heretic (false) definition of: predestined ... is that people are predestined to Heaven or Hell, no matter what they do, grace or cooperation with grace plays no part ... this is a popular heresy of the "calvinists" and other like minded anti-Christs.

Note 2: See Sections 26.1, 28, and 29 of this site regarding conversion, works, and penance ... which state exactly the opposite of this "calvanist" heresy.

Just as, in the natural and corporal generation of children, there is a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Maria. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father, and Maria for their Mother. He who has not Maria for his Mother, has not God for his Father. This is the reason why the reprobate, such as heretics, schismatics, and others (i.e. un-baptized pagans), who hate our Blessed Lady, or regard her with contempt and indifference, have not God for their Father, however much they boast of it, simply because they have not Maria for their Mother. For if they had her for their Mother, they would love and honour her as a true and good child naturally loves and honours the mother who has given him life.

Note: Regarding the text ... "because they do not have Maria for their mother" ... one automatically does not have God as their Father if they are in heresy against any Catholic Dogma or if they are un-baptized pagans ("jews", "buddhists", "mohammedans", "hindus", etc.) ... while they are in one of these reprobate states they do not have the Queen of Heaven as their mother.

Note 2: After you are born, having the Blessed Virgin as your spiritual mother is more important than your physical mother. Your physical mother assists you in your temporary needs in the natural order of this world ... but the Blessed Virgin assists you with your needs in the supernatural order as it relates to eternity ... something infinately more important. Your physical birth mother cannot place actual grace into your soul, to lead you to and then provide the sanctifying grace which is necessary to get to Heaven ... the Blessed Virgin does this, see Section 4 of this site.

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The most infallible and indubitable sign by which we may distinguish a heretic, a man of bad doctrine, a reprobate, from one of the predestinate, is that the heretic and the reprobate have nothing but contempt and indifference for our Blessed Lady, endeavouring by their words and examples to diminish the worship and love of her openly or hiddenly, and sometimes under specious pretexts. Alas! God the Father has not told Maria to dwell in them, for they are Esaus.

Note: Louis de Montfort connects the fact that the "man of bad doctrine" (i.e. against the Catholic Dogma) ... is also one who has no devotion to the Blessed Virgin. The graces of the knowledge of the truth (the Catholic Dogma) originate with God, then to the Blessed Virgin, then into souls of this world. See Ecclesiasticus 24:24 of the Douay-Rheims Bible (the only authentic Bible in English).

God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself, every day by His dear Mother in His members, and He has said to her, "In Israel hcereditare" - "Take Israel for your inheritance." It is as if He had said, God the Father has given Me for an inheritance all the nations of the earth, all the men good and bad, predestinate and reprobate. The one I will lead with a rod of gold, and the others with a rod of iron. Of one I will be the Father and the Advocate, the Just Punisher of others, and the Judge of all. But as for you, My dear Mother, — you shall have for your heritage and possession only the predestinate, figured by Israel; and, as their good Mother, you shall bring them forth and maintain them; and, as their sovereign, you shall conduct them, govern and defend them.

Note: Regarding the text ... "represented by Israel" ... Israel is the Catholic Church (which has no buildings at this time). The religion of the Old Testament Israelites (they weren't jews) was the Catholic Faith unfulfilled ... see Sections 2.3, 4, and 39.1 of this site.

"This man and that man is born in her," says the Holy Spirit, - Homo et homo natus est in ea (Ps. xxxvi. 5). According to the explanation of some of the Fathers, the first Man that is born in Maria is the Man-God, Jesus Christ; the second is a mere man, the child of God and Maria by adoption. If Jesus Christ the Head of men is born in her, the predestinate who are the members of that Head ought also to be born in her by a necessary consequence. One and the same mother does not bring forth into the world the head without the members, nor the members without the head; for this would be a monster of nature. So in like manner, in the order of grace, the Head and the members are born of one and the same Mother; and if a member of the mystical Body of Jesus Christ - that is to say, one of the predestinate - was born of any other mother than Maria (Note: An impossibility), who has produced the Head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but simply a monster in the order of grace.

Besides this, Jesus being at present as much as ever the Fruit of Maria, - as Heaven and earth repeat thousands and thousands of times a day, "and Blessed be the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus," - it is certain that Jesus Christ is, for each man in particular who possesses Him, as truly the fruit of the work of Maria, as He is for the whole world in general (Note: Christ does not apply to the whole world in general, only to Catholics, the others are called anti-Christs. The Redemption applies to the whole world but heretics and un-baptized pagans do not apply the Redemption to their souls.); so that if any one of the faithful has Jesus Christ formed in his heart, he can say boldly, All thanks be to Maria! what I possess is her effect and her fruit, and without her I should never have had it. We can apply to her more truly than St. Paul applied to himself those words, "Quos iterum parturio donec formetur Christus in vobis" - "I am in labour again with all the children of God, until Jesus Christ my Son be formed in them in the fulness of His age." St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin; where they are guarded, nourished, brought up, and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just. O mystery of grace, unknown to the reprobate, and but little known even to the predestinate!

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God the Holy Spirit wishes to form Himself in her, and to form elect for Himself by her, and He has said to her, "In electis meis mitte radices." Strike the roots, My Well-beloved and My Spouse, of all your virtues in My elect, in order that they may grow from virtue to virtue, and from grace to grace. I took so much complacence in you, when you lived on earth in the practice of the most sublime virtues, that I desire still to find you on earth, without your ceasing to be in Heaven. For this end, reproduce yourself in My elect, that I may behold in them with complacence the roots of your invincible faith, of your profound humility, of your universal mortification, of your sublime prayer, of your ardent charity, of your firm hope, and all your virtues. You are always My Spouse, as faithful, as pure, and as fruitful as ever. Let your faith give Me My faithful, your purity My virgins, and your fertility My temples and My elect.

When Maria has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin, who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness.

Maria has produced, together with the Holy Spirit, the greatest thing which has been, or ever will be, which is a God-Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest things that there will be in the latter times.

The formation and education of the great Saints, who shall come at the end of the world, are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Spirit, singular and extraordinary things.

When the Holy Spirit, her Spouse, has found Maria in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fulness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which she makes room for her Spouse. Nay, one of the great reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and indissoluble Spouse. I say indissoluble Spouse, because since that Substantial Love of the Father and the Son (Note: the Holy Spirit)has espoused Maria, in order to produce Jesus Christ, the Head of the elect, and Jesus Christ in the elect, He has never repudiated her, inasmuch as she has always been fruitful and faithful. We may evidently conclude, then, from what I have said:

(1)  That Maria has received from God a great domination over the souls of the elect; for she cannot make her residence in them, as God the Father ordered her to do, and form them in Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ in them, and strike the roots of her virtues in their hearts, and be the indissoluble companion of the Holy Spirit in all His works of grace, - she cannot, I say, do all these things unless she has a right and domination over their souls by a singular grace of the Most High, who, having given her power over His only and Natural Son, has given it also to her over His adopted children, not only as to their bodies, which would be but little matter, but also as to their souls.

Maria is the Queen of Heaven and earth by grace, as Jesus is the King of them by nature and by conquest. Now, as the Kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally in the heart and interior of a man, - according to that word, "The Kingdom of God is within you" - in like manner the Kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally in the interior of a man, that is to say, his soul; and it is principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible creatures, and that we can call her, as the Saints do, the Queen of Hearts.

(2)  We must conclude that, the most holy Virgin being necessary to God by a necessity which we call hypothetical, in consequence of His Will, she is far more necessary to men, in order for them to arrive at their Last End. We must not confound devotions to our Blessed Lady with devotions to the other Saints, as if devotion to her was not far more necessary than devotion to them, or as if devotion to her were a matter of supererogation (i.e. class of actions which go beyond that which is required).

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The learned and pious Suarez the Jesuit, the erudite and devout Justus Lipsius doctor of Louvain, and many others, have proved invincibly, in consequence of the sentiments of the Fathers (and, among others, of St. Augustine, St. Ephrem deacon of Edessa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure), that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and that, even in the opinion of (Eeolampadius and some other heretics), it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.

Note: Regarding the text ... "infallible mark of predestination" ... is to say that by devotion to the Blessed Virgin and by cooperation with the graces she imparts ... you will be brought (by grace) to the virtues of faith (believing the Catholic Dogmas whole and inviolate), hope, and charity.

The figures and words of the Old and New Testaments prove this. The sentiments and examples of the Saints confirm it. Reason and experience teach and demonstrate it. Even the devil and his crew, constrained by the force of truth, have often been obliged to avow it on their own despite (themselves).

Among all the passages of the holy Fathers and doctors, of which I have made an ample collection, in order to prove this truth, I shall, for brevity's sake, quote but one: "Tibi devotum esse, est arma qucedam salutis quae Deus his dat, quos vult salvos fieri" - "To be devout to you, O holy Virgin," says St. John Damascene, "is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save." (Note: All persons recieve the grace they need to get to Heaven, Saint John is tying this fact to the fact that Marian devotion is a sign of cooperation with this grace, see Sections 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3) I could bring forward here many histories which prove the same thing, and, among others, one which is related in the chronicles of St. Dominic.

There was an unhappy heretic near Carcassonne, where St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary, who was possessed by a legion of fifteen thousand devils. These evil spirits were compelled, to their confusion, by the commandment of our Blessed Lady, to avow many great and consoling truths, touching devotion to the holy Virgin; and they did this with so much force, and so much clearness, that it is not possible to read this authentic history, and the panegyric (formal or elaborate praise) which the devil made, in spite of himself, of devotion to the most holy Maria, without shedding tears of joy, however lukewarm we may be in our devotion to her.

If devotion to the most holy Virgin Maria is necessary to all men, simply for working out their salvation, it is still more so for those who are called to any particular perfection; and I do not think any one can acquire an intimate union with our Lord, and a perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit, without a very great union with the most holy Virgin, and a great dependence on her succour.

It is Maria alone who has found grace before God, without the aid of any other mere creature: it is only by her that all those who have found grace before God have found it at all; and it is only by her that all those who shall come afterwards shall find it. She was full of grace when she was saluted by the Archangel Gabriel, and she was superabundantly filled with grace by the Holy Spirit when He covered her with His unspeakable Shadow; and she has so augmented, from day to day and from moment to moment, this double plenitude, that she has reached a point of grace immense and inconceivable; in such sort that the Most High has made her the sole treasurer of His treasures, and the sole dispenser of His graces, to ennoble, to exalt, and to enrich whom she wishes; to give the entry to whom she wills into the narrow way of heaven; to pass whom she wills, and in spite of all obstacles, through the strait gate of life; and to give the throne, the sceptre, and the crown of the King to whom she wills. Jesus is every where and always the Fruit and the Son of Maria; and Maria is every where the veritable tree, who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother, who produces it.

Note: Regarding the text ... "to whom she wills into the narrow way of Heaven" .. This paragraph is correct that the Blessed Virgin is all powerful in the order of grace ... but it is incorrect because all persons receive the graces they need to be saved ... you can get errors like this introduced into pious writings at times. The De Fide Dogma in correction ...

Catholic De Fide Dogma, Section V, God the Sanctifier, Dogma No. 14  >
"The human will remains free under the influence of efficacious grace, which is not irresistible."

Catholic De Fide Dogma, Section V, God the Sanctifier, Dogma No. 15 >  >
"There is grace which is truly sufficient and yet remains inefficacious."

Catholic De Fide Dogma, Section V, God the Sanctifier, Dogma No. 17 >  >
"The sinner can and must prepare himself by the help of actual grace for the reception of the grace by which he is justified."

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It is Maria alone to whom God has given the keys of the cellars of Divine love, and the power to enter into the most sublime and secret ways of perfection, and the power likewise to make others enter in there also. It is Maria alone who has given to the miserable children of Eve, the faithless, the entry into the terrestrial paradise, that they may walk there agreeably with God, hide themselves there securely against their enemies, and feed themselves there deliciously, without any more fear of death, on the fruit of the trees of life and of the knowledge of good and evil, and drink in long draughts the heavenly waters of that fair fountain, which gushes forth there with abundance; or rather she is herself that terrestrial paradise, that virgin and blessed earth, from which Adam and Eve, the sinners, have been driven, and she gives no entry there except to those whom it is her pleasure to make Saints.

Note: Regarding the text ... "no entry there except" ... please see note following previous paragraph.

All the rich among the people, to make use of an expression of the Holy Spirit, according to the explanation of St. Bernard, - all the rich among the people shall supplicate thy face from age to age, and particularly at the end of the world; that is to say, the greatest Saints, the souls richest in graces and virtues, shall be the most assiduous in praying to our Blessed Lady, and in having her always present as their perfect model to imitate, and their powerful aid to give them succour.

I have said that this would come to pass particularly at the end of the world, and indeed presently, because the Most High with His holy Mother has to form for Himself great Saints, who shall surpass most of the other Saints in sanctity, as much as the cedars of Lebanon outgrow the little shrubs, as has been revealed to a holy soul, whose life has been written by a great servant of God.

These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, nourished by her milk, led by her spirit, supported by her arm, and sheltered under her protection, so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they shall fight, overthrow, and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries, and the sinners with their impieties.

With the other hand they shall build the temple of the true Solomon, and the mystical city of God; that is to say, the most holy Virgin, called by the holy Fathers the Temple of Solomon and the City of God. By their words and their examples they shall bend the whole world to true devotion to Maria. This shall bring upon them many enemies; but it shall also bring many victories and much glory for God alone. It is this which God revealed to St. Vincent Ferrer, the great apostle of his age, as he has sufficiently noted in one of his works.

It is this which the Holy Spirit seems to have prophesied in the fifty-eighth Psalm, of which these are the words: "Et scient quia Dominus dominabitur Jacob, etfinium terra; convertentur ad vesperam, etfamempatientur ut canes, et circuibunt civitatem" - "And they shall know that God will rule Jacob, and all the ends of the earth; they shall return at evening, and shall suffer hunger like dogs, and shall go round about the city."

This city which men shall find at the end of the world to convert themselves in, and to satisfy the hunger they have for justice, is the most holy Virgin, who is called by the Holy Spirit the City of God.

Note: We see how prophetic this writing of the early 1700's was and is ... in these times when the Catholic Church has lost all of it's physical properties and personnel hierarchy to the Vatican-2 jew-heretic cult. This takover happened on 8 December 1965, the close date of the "vatican-2 council" ... see Sections 12 and 13 and their sub-sections of this site.

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