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

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

Day 24 of 33 -- Additional motives and Church instruction for
Total Consecration to Jesus by Maria

~         ~         ~

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.  Jesus Christ sets the example of ... submitting Himself to the Blessed Virgin for 30 years before making the public revelations of Catholic truth.

2.  Imitation of Christ by ... total consecration to Jesus by Maria.

3.  The Blessed Virgin meets those consecrated to Jesus by her in the same spirit ... she will not be outdone in returning favors.

~         ~         ~

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

PART II

On the most excellent Devotion to our Blessed Lady or the Perfect Consecration to Jesus by Maria

I. In what consists the perfect consecration to Jesus Christ

Second Motive

The Second Motive, which shows us how just it is in itself, and advantageous to Christians, to consecrate themselves entirely to the Blessed Virgin by this practice, in order to belong more perfectly to Jesus Christ.

This good Master has not disdained to shut Himself up in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, as a captive and as a loving slave, and to be subject and obedient to her for thirty years. It is here, I repeat it, that the human mind loses itself when it seriously reflects on the conduct of the Incarnate Wisdom, who has not willed, though He might have done so, to give Himself to men directly, but through the Blessed Virgin. He did not will to come into the world at the age of a perfect man, independent of others, but like a poor and little babe, dependent on the cares and nourishment of this holy Mother. He is that Infinite Wisdom, who had a boundless desire to glorify God His Father, and to save men; and yet He found no more perfect means, no shorter way to do it, than to submit Himself in all things to the Blessed Virgin, not only during the first eight, ten, or fifteen years of His life, like other children, but for thirty years! He gave more glory to God His Father during all that time of submission and dependence to our Blessed Lady than He would have given Him if He had employed those thirty years in working miracles, in preaching to the whole earth, and in converting all men, seeing that His heavenly Father and Himself had ruled it thus: "Quce placita sunt ei, facio semper." - Oh! how highly we glorify God, when, after the example of Jesus, we submit ourselves to Maria!

Having, then, before our eyes an example so plain and so well known to the whole world, are we so senseless as to imagine that we can find a more perfect or a shorter means of glorifying God than that of submitting ourselves to Maria, after the example of her Son? Let us recall here, as a proof of the dependence we ought to have on our Blessed Lady, what I have said above in bringing forward the example which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit give of this dependence. The Father has not given, and does not give, His Son except by her; He has no children but by her, and communicates no graces but by her. God the Son has not been formed for the whole world in general except by her; and He is not daily formed and engendered except by her, in the union with the Holy Spirit; neither does He communicate His merits and His virtues except by her. The Holy Spirit has not formed Jesus Christ except by her; neither does He form the members of our Lord's Mystical Body except by her; and through her alone does He dispense His favours and His gifts. After so many and such pressing examples of the Most Holy Trinity, can we, without an extreme blindness, dispense ourselves from Maria, and not consecrate ourselves to her, and depend on her to go to God, and to sacrifice ourselves to God? Here are some Latin passages of the Fathers, which I have chosen to prove what has just been said:

"Duo filii Marise sunt, homo Deus et homo purus,
unius corporaliter, et alterius spiritualiter
Mater est Maria" (St. Bonaventure and Origen). (Note: Origen fell and died as a heretic and lost his soul)

> > "Maria has two sons, the one a God-man, the other, mere man. She
is Mother of the first corporally and of the second spiritually."
 
- -
 
"Base est voluntas Dei, qui totum nos vo luit
habere per Mariam, ac proinde si quid spei, si
quid gratia?, si quid salutis, ab ea noverimus
redundare." (St. Bernard).

> > "This is the will of God who willed that we should
have all things through Maria. If then, we possess any hope
or grace or gift of salvation, let us acknowledge that it
comes to us through her."
 
- -
 
"Omnia dona, virtutes gratise ipsius Spiritus
Sancti, quibus vult, et quandd vult, quo modo
vult, et quantum vult, per ipsius manus
administrantur." (St. Bernardin).

> > "All the gifts, graces, virtues of the Holy Spirit are
distributed by the hands of Maria, to whom she wills, when she
wills, as she wills, and in the measure she wills."
 
- -
 
"Quia indignus eras cui donaretur, datum est
Marise, ut per illam acciperes quidquid ha
beres." (St. Bernard).

> > "As you were not worthy that anything Divine should be given
to you, all graces were given to Maria so that you might receive
through her all graces you would not otherwise receive."

God, says St. Bernard, seeing that we are unworthy to receive His graces immediately from His own hand, gives them to Maria, in order that we may have through her whatever He wills to give us; and He also finds His glory in receiving through the hands of Maria the gratitude, respect, and love, which we owe Him for His benefits. It is most just, then, that we should imitate this conduct of God, in order, as the same St. Bernard says, that the grace should return to its Author by the same canal through which it came: "Ut eodem alveo ad largitorem gratia gratia redeat, quofluxib."

This is precisely what our devotion does. We offer and consecrate all we are and all we have to the Blessed Virgin, in order that our Lord may receive through her mediation the glory and the gratitude which we owe Him. We acknowledge ourselves unworthy and unfit to approach His Infinite Majesty by ourselves; and it is on this account that we avail ourselves of the intercession of the most holy Virgin.

Moreover, this devotion is a practice of great humility, which God loves above all the other virtues. A soul which exalts itself abases God; a soul which abases itself exalts God, God resists the proud, and gives His grace to the humble. If you abase yourself, thinking yourself unworthy to appear before Him and to draw nigh to Him, He descends, and lowers Himself to come to you, to take pleasure in you, and to exalt you in spite of yourself.

On the contrary, when you are hardy enough to approach God without a mediator, God flies from you, and you cannot reach Him. Oh, how He loves humility of heart! It is to this humility that our peculiar devotion engages us, because it teaches us never to draw nigh of ourselves to our Lord, however sweet and merciful He may be, but always to avail ourselves of the intercession of our Blessed Lady, whether it be to appear before God, or to speak to Him, or to draw near to Him, or to offer Him anything, or to unite and consecrate ourselves to Him.

~         ~         ~

Third Motive

1.  The most holy Virgin, who is a Mother of sweetness and mercy, and who never lets herself be vanquished in love and liberality, seeing that we give ourselves entirely to her, to honour and to serve her, and for that end strip ourselves of all that is dearest to us in order to adorn her, meets us in the same spirit. She also gives her whole self, and gives it in an unspeakable manner, to him who gives all to her. She causes him to be engulfed in the abyss of her graces. She adorns him with her merits; she supports him with her power; she illuminates him with her light; she inflames him with her love; she communicates to him her virtues, her humility, her faith, her purity, and the rest. She makes herself his bail, his supplement, and his dear all towards Jesus. In a word, as that person is all consecrated to Maria, so is Maria all for him; after such a fashion that we can say of that perfect servant and child of Maria what St. John the Evangelist said of himself, that he took the holy Virgin for all his goods, - "Accepit earn discipulus in sua."

It is this which produces in the soul, if it is faithful, a great distrust, contempt, and hatred of self, and a great confidence and a great self-abandonment in the Blessed Virgin, its good Mistress. A man no longer, as before, leans on his own dispositions, intentions, merits, and good works; because, having made an entire sacrifice of them to Jesus Christ by that good Mother, he has but one treasure now, where all his goods are laid up, and that is no longer in himself; for his treasure is Maria. It is this which makes him approach our Lord without servile or scrupulous fear, and pray to Him with great confidence. It is this which makes him enter into the sentiments of the devout and learned Abbot Rupert, who, making an allusion to the victory that Jacob gained over the angel, said to our Blessed Lady these beautiful words: "O Maria, my Princess, Immaculate Mother of a God-man, Jesus Christ, I desire to wrestle with that Man, namely, the Divine Word, not armed with my own merits, but with yours." - "O Domina, Dei genitrix Maria, est incorrupta Mater Dei et Hominis, non meis, sed tuis armatus meritis, cum isto Viro, seu Verbo Dei, luctari cupio." (Bup. Prolog, in Cantia).

Oh, how strong and mighty we are with Jesus Christ, when we are armed with the worthy merits and intercession of the Mother of God, who, as St. Augustine says, has lovingly vanquished the Most High.

2.  As by this practice we give to our Lord by His Mother's hands all our good works, that good Mother purifies them, embellishes them, and makes them acceptable to her Son.

(1) She purifies them of all the soil of selflove, and of that imperceptible attachment to the creature, which slips incessantly into our best actions. As soon as they are in her most pure and fruitful hands, those same hands, which have never been sullied or idle, and which purify whatever they touch, take away from the present which we make to her all that was spoilt or imperfect about it.

(2) She embellishes our works, in adorning them with her own merits and virtues. It is as if a peasant, wishing to gain the friendship and benevolence of the king, went to the queen, and presented her with a fruit, which was his whole revenue, in order that she might present it to the king. The queen, having accepted the poor little offering from the peasant, would place the fruit on a large and beautiful dish of gold, and so, on the peasant's behalf, would present it to the king. Then the fruit, however unworthy in itself to be a king's present, would become worthy of his majesty, because of the dish of gold on which it rested and the person who presented it.

(3) She presents these good works to Jesus Christ; for she keeps nothing of what is given for herself, as if she was our last end. She refers it all faithfully to Jesus. If we give to her, we give necessarily to Jesus; if we praise her or glorify her, we at once praise and glorify Jesus. As of old, when St. Elizabeth praised her, so now, when we praise and bless her, she sings herself, "Magnificat anima mea Dominum" (My soul doth magnify the Lord).

(4) She persuades Jesus to accept these good works, however little and poor the present may be for that Saint of saints (Maria) and that King of kings (Jesus). When we present anything to Jesus by ourselves, and relying on our own industry and disposition, Jesus examines the offering, and often rejects it because of the stains it has contracted through self-love; just as of old He rejected the sacrifices of the Jews Judeans when they were full of their own will. But when we present Him anything by the pure and virginal hands of His Well-beloved, we take Him by His weak side, if it is allowable to use such a term. He does not consider so much the thing that is given Him, as the Mother who gives it. He does not consider so much whence the offering comes, as by whom it comes. Thus Maria, who is never repelled and always well received by her Son, makes everything she presents to Him, great or small, acceptable to His Majesty. For Jesus to receive it and to take complacence in it, it is enough that Maria should present it. This is the great counsel which St. Bernard used to give to those whom he conducted to perfection: "When you want to offer anything to God, take care to offer it by the most agreeable and worthy hands of Maria, unless you wish to have it rejected - "Modicum quod offerre desideras manibus Marice offerendum tradere cura, si non vis sustinere repulsam."

Is not this what nature itself suggests to the little, with regard to the great, as we have already seen? Why should not grace lead us to do the same thing with regard to God, who is infinitely exalted above us, and before whom we are less than atoms? Seeing, moreover, that we have an advocate so powerful that she is never refused; so full of inventions, that she knows all the secret ways of gaining the heart of God; and so good and charitable, that she repels no one, however little and wretched he may be.

I shall bring forward presently the true figure of these truths in the history of Jacob and Rebecca.

~         ~         ~

Fourth Motive

This devotion, faithfully practised, is an excellent means of making sure that the value of all our good works shall be employed for the greatest glory of God. Scarcely any one acts for that noble end, although we are all under an obligation to do so. Either we do not know where the greatest glory of God is to be found, or we do not wish to find it. But our Blessed Lady, to whom we cede the value and the merit of the good works we may do, knows most perfectly where the greatest glory of God is to be found; and, inasmuch as she never does any thing except for the greatest glory of God, a perfect servant of that good Mistress, who is wholly consecrated to her, may say with the hardiest assurance, that the value of all his actions, thoughts, and words, is employed for the greatest glory of God, at least unless he expressly revokes his offering. Is there any consolation equal to this, for a soul who loves God with a pure and disinterested love, and who prizes the glory and interests of God far beyond his own?

~         ~         ~

Fifth Motive

This devotion is an easy, short, perfect, and secure way of arriving at union with our Lord, in which the perfection of a Christian consists.

1.  It is an easy way. It is the way which Jesus Christ Himself trod in coming to us, and in which there is no obstacle in arriving at Him. It is true that we can attain to divine union by other roads; but it is by many more crosses, and strange deaths, and with many more difficulties, which we shall find it hard to overcome. We must pass through obscure nights, through combats, through strange agonies, over craggy mountains, through cruel thorns, and over frightful deserts. But, by the path of Maria, we pass more gently and more tranquilly. We do find, it is true, great battles to fight, and great hardships to master; but that good Mother and Mistress makes herself so present and so near to her faithful servants, to enlighten them in their darknesses and their doubts, to strengthen them in their fears, and to sustain them in their struggles and their difficulties, that in truth this virginal path to find Jesus Christ is a path of roses and honey compared with the other paths. There have been some Saints, but they have been in small numbers, who have passed by this sweet path to go to Jesus, because the Holy Spirit, faithful Spouse of Maria, has by a singular grace disclosed it to them. Such were St. Ephrem, St. John Damascene, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Bonaventure, St. Francis of Sales, and others. But the rest of the Saints, who are the greater number, although they have all had devotion to our Blessed Lady, have not on that account, or at least very little, entered upon this way. This is why they have had to pass through ruder and more dangerous trials.

How comes it, then, some of the faithful servants of Maria will say to me, that the loyal clients of this good Mother have so many occasions of suffering, nay, even more than others who are not so devout to her? They are contradicted, they are persecuted, they are calumniated, the world cannot endure them; or, again, they walk in interior darknesses, and in deserts where there is not the least drop of the dew of Heaven. If this devotion to our Blessed Lady makes the road to Jesus easier, how is it that they who follow it are the most despised of men? I reply, that it is quite true that the most faithful servants of the Blessed Virgin, being also her greatest favourites, receive from her the greatest graces and favours of Heaven, which are crosses. But I maintain that it is also the servants of Maria who carry these crosses with more facility, more merit, and more glory. That which would stay the progress of another a thousand times over, or perhaps would make him fall, does not once arrest their steps, but rather enables them to advance; because that good Mother, all full of the graces and unction of the Holy Spirit, preserves all the crosses, which she cuts for them, in the sugar of her maternal sweetness, so that they swallow them gaily, like preserved fruits, however bitter they may be in themselves; and I believe that a person who wishes to be devout, and to live piously in Jesus Christ, and consequently to suffer persecutions, and carry his cross daily, will never carry great crosses, or carry them joyously or perseveringly, without a tender devotion to our Lady, which is the sweetmeat and confection of crosses; just as a person would not be able to eat unripe fruits, without a great effort which he could hardly keep up, unless they had been preserved in sugar.

2.  This devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a short road to find Jesus Christ, both because it is a road which we do not stray from, and because, as I have just said, it is a road we tread with joy and facility, and by consequence with promptitude. We make more progress in a brief period of submission to, and dependence on, Maria than in whole years of our own will, and of resting upon ourselves. A man obedient and submissive to Maria shall sing the signal victories which he shall gain over his enemies. They will try to hinder his advancing, or to make him retrace his steps, or to fall. This is true. But with the support, the aid, and the guidance of Maria, without falling, without drawing back one step, without even slackening his pace, he shall advance with giant strides towards Jesus, along the same path by which he knows that Jesus also came to us with giant strides, and in the briefest space of time. Why do you think that Jesus lived so short a time on earth, and of those few years spent nearly all of them in subjection and obedience to His Mother? Ah, this is the truth: that He was perfected (see Note below) indeed in a short time, but that he lived a long time, longer than Adam, whose fall He had come to repair, although the patriarch lived above nine hundred years. Jesus Christ lived a long time, because He lived in complete subjection to His holy Mother, and closely united with her, in order that He might thus obey God His Father. For the Holy Spirit says that a man who honours his mother is like a man who layeth up a treasure; that is to say, he who honours Maria his Mother, up to the point of subjecting himself to her and obeying her in all things, will soon become exceedingly rich, (1) because he is every day amassing treasures, by the secret of that "philosopher's stone" - "Qui honorat matrem quasi qui thesaurizat"; (2) because it is the bosom of Maria which has surrounded and engendered a perfect man, and has had the capacity of containing Him whom the whole universe could neither contain nor comprehend, - it is, I say, in the bosom of Maria that they who are youthful become elders in light, in holiness, in experience, and in wisdom; and that we arrive in a few years at the fullness of the age of Jesus Christ.

Note: Regarding the text ... "He was perfected indeed" ... clearly Jesus didn't need to be perfected ... not sure how this got into the text, this could be a problem introduced by the printers (Robson, Levey, and Franklyn).

3.  This practice of devotion to our Blessed Lady is also a perfect path by which to go and unite ourselves to Jesus, because the divine Maria is the most perfect and the most holy of creatures, and because Jesus, who has come to us most perfectly, took no other road for His great and admirable journey. The Most High, the Incomprehensible, the Inaccessible, He Who Is, has deigned to come to us, little worms of earth who are nothing. How has He done this? The Most High has come down to us perfectly and divinely by the humble Maria. He has come to us by her, without losing anything of His divinity and sanctity. So it is by Maria that the unspeakably little are to ascend, perfectly and divinely, without any fear, to the Most High. The Incomprehensible has allowed Himself to be comprehended and perfectly contained by the little Maria, without losing anything of His immensity. So also is it by the little Maria that we must let ourselves be held and guided perfectly without any reserve. The Inaccessible has drawn near to us, and has closely united Himself to us, perfectly, and even personally, to our humanity, by Maria, without losing any of His Majesty. So also is it by Maria that we must draw near to God, and unite ourselves perfectly and closely to His Majesty, without fear of being repulsed. In a word, He Who Is has designed to come to that which is not, and to make that which is not become God in Him Who Is; and He has done this perfectly in giving Himself and subjecting Himself entirely to the young Virgin Maria without ceasing to be in time He who is eternal. In like manner it is by Maria that we, who are nothing, can become like to God by grace and glory, by giving ourselves to her so perfectly and entirely as to be nothing in ourselves but every thing in her, without fear of delusion.

Note: Regarding the text ... "that which is not become God in Him" ...

Catholic writing of Saint John 1:12 >
"But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name."
("To be made the sons of God" ... not "become God" ... this may have been another translation problem)

Make for me, if you will, a new road to go to Jesus, and pave it with all the merits of the Blessed, adorn it with all their heroic virtues, illuminate and embellish it with all the lights and beauties of the Angels, and let all the Angels and Saints be there themselves to escort, defend, and sustain those who are ready to walk there; and yet in truth, in simple truth, I say boldly, and I repeat that I say truly, I would prefer to this new perfect path the immaculate way of Maria. "Posui immaculatam viam meam." It is the way without any stain or spot, without original or actual sin, without shadow or darkness. When my sweet Jesus in His glory comes a second time on earth, as it is most certain He will do, to reign there, He will choose no other way for His journey than the divine Maria, by whom He came the first time so surely and so perfectly. But there will be a difference between His first and His last coming. The first time He came secretly and hiddenly; the second time He will come gloriously and resplendently. But both times He will come perfectly, because both times He will come by Maria (Note: Since Maria is without spot). Alas, here is a mystery which is not understood. "Hie taceat omnis lingua." (Here let every tongue be quite)

4.  This devotion to our Blessed Lady is also a secure way to go to Jesus, and to acquire perfection by uniting us to Him.

(1) It is a secure way, because the practice which I am teaching is not new. M. Boudon, who died a little while ago in the odour of sanctity, says, in a book which he composed on this devotion, that it is so ancient we cannot fix precisely the date of its commencement. It is, however, certain that for more than seven hundred years we find traces of it in the Church. St. Odilon, the abbot of Cluny, who lived about the year 1040, was one of the first who publicly practised it in France; as is remarked in his life. Cardinal Peter Damien relates that, in the year 1036, the Blessed Marino, his brother, made himself a slave of the Blessed Virgin in the presence of his director, in a most edifying manner. He put a rope round his neck, took the discipline, and laid on the altar a sum of money, to mark his devotion and consecration to our Lady; and he continued this devotion so faithfully during his whole life, that he deserved to be visited and consoled at his death by his good Mistress, and to receive from her mouth the promise of Paradise in recompense for his services.

Cesarius Bollandus mentions an illustrious cavalier, Vautier de Birbac, who, about the year 1500, consecrated himself to the Blessed Virgin. This devotion was also practised by several private persons up to the seventeenth century, when it became public.

Father Simon de Boxas, of the Order of the Redemption of Captives, and preacher of Philip the Third, made this devotion popular in Spain and Germany; and through the instance of Philip the Third, he obtained of Gregory the Fifteenth ample indulgences for those who practised it. Father de Los Rios, the Augustinian, devoted himself, with his intimate friend, Father Boxas, to spread this devotion, both by preaching and writing, through Spain and Germany. He composed a thick volume, called fifierarchia Mariana, in which he treats, with as much piety as learning, of the antiquity, excellence, and solidity of this devotion. The Theatin Fathers, in the seventeenth century, established this devotion in Italy, Sicily, and Savoy. Father Stanislas Phalacius, the Jesuit, increased this devotion wonderfully in Poland. Father de Los Rios, in his work just cited, quotes the names of princes, princesses, dukes, and cardinals, of different kingdoms, who embraced this devotion.

Cornelius a Lapide, as much recommended for his piety as for his profound erudition, having received a commission from several theologians to examine this devotion, did so with great maturity and deliberation, and praised it in a manner which we might have expected from his well-known piety; and many other distinguished persons have followed his example.

The Jesuit Fathers, always zealous in the service of our Blessed Lady, presented, in the name of the Congreganists of Cologne, a little treatise on this devotion to the Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, who was then Archbishop of Cologne. He gave it his approbation, and permission to print it; and exhorted all the parish priests and religious of his diocese to promote the devotion as much as ever they could. Cardinal Berulle, whose memory is in benediction through all France, was one of the most zealous in spreading this devotion in that country, in spite of all the calumnies and persecutions which he suffered from critics and libertines. They accused him of novelty and superstition. They wrote and published against him, a libel in order to defame him; and they made use, or rather it was the devil by their ministry, of a thousand subtleties to hinder his spreading the devotion in France. But that great and holy man only answered their calumnies by his patience; and he met the objections contained in their libel by a short treatise, in which he most convincingly refuted them. He showed them that the devotion was founded on the example of Jesus Christ, on the obligations which we have to Him, and on the vows which we have made in holy Baptism. It was chiefly by this last reason that he shut his adversaries' mouths, making them see that this consecration to the holy Virgin, and to Jesus Christ by her hands, is nothing else than a perfect renewal of the vows and promises of Baptism. He has said many beautiful things on this practice, which can be read in his works.

We may also see in M. Boudon's book the different Popes who have approved this devotion, the theologians who have examined it, the persecutions they have undergone and have overcome, and the thousands of persons who have embraced it, without any Pope having ever condemned it. Indeed, we cannot see how it could be condemned without overturning the foundations of Christianity. It is clear, then, that this devotion is not new; and that if it is not common, it is because it is too precious to be relished and practised by all the world.*

*Boudon says, in his Saint Esclavage, that the English Catholics were remarkable for this devotion in the seventeenth century. - F.W.F. (Fr. Faber)

(2) This devotion is a secure means of going to Jesus Christ, because it is the very characteristic of our Blessed Lady to conduct us surely to Jesus, just as it is the very characteristic of Jesus to conduct us surely to the Eternal Father. Spiritual persons, therefore, must not fall into the false belief that Maria can be a hindrance to them in attaining to Divine union; for is it possible that she who has found grace before God for the whole world in general, and for each one in particular, should be a hindrance to a soul in finding the great grace of union with Him? Can it be possible that she who has been all full and superabounding with graces, so united and transformed into (to) God that it has been a kind of necessity that He should be incarnate in her, should be a stumbling-block in the way of a soul's perfect union with God? It is quite true that the view of other creatures, however holy, may perhaps at certain times retard divine union. But this cannot be said of Maria, as I have remarked before, and shall never weary of repeating. One reason why so few souls come to the fullness of the age of Jesus Christ is because Maria, who is as much as ever the Mother of the Son, and as much as ever the fruitful Spouse of the Holy Spirit, is not sufficiently formed in their hearts. He who wishes to have the fruit well ripened and well formed must have the tree that produces it; he who wishes to have the fruit of life, Jesus Christ, must have the tree of life, which is Maria; he who wishes to have in himself the operation of the Holy Spirit must have His faithful and indissoluble Spouse, the divine Maria, who makes Him fertile and fruit-bearing, as we have said elsewhere.

Note: Regarding the text ... "transformed into God" ... could be another translation problem from the French or a problem introduced by the printers (Robson, Levey, and Franklyn) ... in that created beings cannot be transformed into God ... this should simply read "united".

Be persuaded, then, that the more you look at Maria in your prayers, contemplations, actions, and sufferings, if not with a distinct and definite view, at least with a general and imperceptible one, the more perfectly will you find Jesus Christ, who is always with Maria, great, powerful, operative, and incomprehensible.

Thus, so far from the divine Maria, all absorbed in God, being an obstacle to the perfect in their attaining to union with God, there has never been up to this point, and there never will be, any creature who will aid us more efficaciously in this great work, whether by the graces she will communicate to us for this effect, - for, as a Saint has said, no one can be filled with the thought of God except by her, "Nemo cogitatione Dei repletur, nisi per te" - or whether by freedom from the illusions and trickeries of the evil spirit, which she will guarantee to us.

Where Maria is, there the evil spirit is not. One of the most infallible marks we can have of our being conducted by the good Spirit is our being very devout to Maria, our thinking often of her, and our speaking often of her.

This last is the thought of a Saint, who adds, that as respiration is a certain sign the body is not dead, the frequent thought and loving invocation of Maria is a certain sign the soul is not dead by sin.

As it is Maria alone, says the Church (and the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church), who alone makes all heresies come to naught - "Sola cutictas hcereses interemisti in universo mundo" - we may be sure that, however critics may grumble, no faithful client of Maria will ever fall into heresy or illusion, at least formal. He may very well err materially, take falsehood for truth, and the evil spirit for the good; and yet he will do even this with more difficulty than others. But sooner or later he will acknowledge his material fault and error; and when he knows it, he will not be in any way self-opinionated in believing and maintaining what he had once thought true. Whoever, then, wishes to put aside the fear of illusion, which is the besetting timidity of men of prayer, and to advance in the way of perfection, and surely and perfectly to find Jesus Christ, let him embrace with greatheartedness - "corde magno et animo volenti" - this devotion to our Blessed Lady, which perhaps he has not known before; let him enter into this excellent way, which was unknown to him, and which I now point out: "Excellentiorem viam vobis demonstro."

Note: Regarding the text ... "into heresy or illusion, at least formal" ... there is no distinction between "formal heresy", "informal heresy", "material heresy", or some other lable ... there is only heresy, period. Either you know and believe the Catholic Dogmas ... or you are in heresy and automatically excommunicated from Christianity. See Sections 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 9 of this site.

It is a path trodden by Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, our sole Head. One of His members in passing by the same road cannot deceive himself. It is an easy road, because of the fullness of the grace and unction of the Holy Spirit, which fills it to overflowing. No one wearies there; no one walking there has ever to retrace his steps. It is a short road, which leads us to Jesus in a little time. It is a perfect road, where there is no mud, no dust, nor the least spot of sin. Lastly, it is a secure road, which conducts us to Jesus Christ and life eternal in a straight and secure manner, without turning to the right hand or to the left. Let us, then, set forth upon that road, and walk there day and night, until we come to the fulness of the age of Jesus Christ.

~ ~ ~ ~