Sister Katherine Maria, MICM
True Devotion to Mary:Motives
Once he has established the importance and the nature of this devotion, Montfort begins the next chapter titled Motives, which forms the longest of the little volume and filled with compelling reasons to follow this spirituality, each supported by the writings and testimonies of many saints. In the first article of this chapter, he lists the eight motives for “this perfect consecration.” The first is the excellence of the consecration of ourselves to Jesus by the hands of Mary. The second “makes us imitate the example of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Trinity and the practice of humility.” The third tells us that it is good because by giving ourselves to Mary, she gives herself to us: “she adorns the soul with her merits; she supports it with her power; she illuminates it with her light; she inflames it with her love; she communicates to it her virtues….She makes herself its bail, its supplement, and its dear all toward Jesus, purifying its good works embellishing them and making them acceptable to her Son.” The fourth motive gives greater glory to God.
The fifth tells us how total consecration to Mary is the easiest, shortest, perfect, and most secure of all devotions. This is because it is the way that Jesus Christ took in coming to us, and in which there is no obstacle to Him. It is a way from which we do not stray, as it is filled with joy and facility, and consequently promptitude. “It is perfect because it is the channel that the Most High used to come to us, by the humble Mary, and so it is by Mary that the very little ones ascend perfectly and without fear to the Most High.” The testimonies of many saints are quoted next, illustrating the security that this devotion brings to us.
Because of its uniting us so closely to God, the sixth motive explains how this devotion gives us greater interior liberty. Graces flow through us as through a channel. The seventh motive reveals how this devotion procures a great blessing on our neighbor. The final and eighth motive shows us how, by following faithfully all that is required, this devotion is an admirable means of perseverance.
"Mary is the mother of sinners who wish to repent, and as a mother she cannot do otherwise than compassionate them; nay more, she seems to feel the miseries of her poor children as if they were her own."
In The Glories of Mary, Saint Alphonsus Liguori likewise records a motive, not mentioned by St. Louis Marie, but quite compelling: Mary’s mercy for sinners. “Mary is the mother of sinners who wish to repent, and as a mother she cannot do otherwise than compassionate them; nay more, she seems to feel the miseries of her poor children as if they were her own. When a Canaanite woman begged Our Lord to deliver her daughter from the devil who possessed her, she said ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David, my daughter is grievously troubled by a Devil.’
Since the daughter, and not the mother, was tormented, she should rather have said, ‘Lord, take compassion on my daughter:’ and not ‘Have mercy on me’; but no, she said ‘Have mercy on me,’ and she was right; for the sufferings of children are felt by their mother as if they were their own. Would that all sinners had recourse to this sweet Mother, for they certainly would be pardoned by God.”
but if he recommends himself to the Blessed Virgin, and implores her, with confidence and perseverance, to withdraw him from the state of sin in which he is, there can be no doubt but this good Mother will extend her powerful hand to him, will deliver him from his chains, and lead him to a state of salvation."
The next section of True Devotion, uses supporting images from the Old Testament: Rebecca and Jacob. Drawing from their story, Saint Louis Marie illustrates Mary’s love for her devotees, how she fosters and nurtures them, conducts and directs them and how she defends and protects them and even intercedes for them. Before the book concludes with the formula of consecration, chapter three describes the “Wonderful Effects of the Devotion.” Montfort lists them as: knowledge and contempt of self; participation in Mary’s faith; deliverance from scruples, cares and fears; confidence in God and Mary; the ability to communicate with Mary in our soul life; the transformation by Mary of a soul into the likeness of Jesus; and last, but not least, attaining the greater glory of God.
True Devotion urges readers to be converted in order to gain salvation because, “so long, then, as a sinner is obstinate, Mary cannot love him; but if he (finding himself chained by some passion which keeps him a slave of Hell) recommends himself to the Blessed Virgin, and implores her, with confidence and perseverance, to withdraw him from the state of sin in which he is, there can be no doubt but this good Mother will extend her powerful hand to him, will deliver him from his chains, and lead him to a state of salvation.”
Saint Bonaventure supports this need for mercy as a motive for this devotion: “If my Redeemer rejects me on account of my sins, and drives me from His sacred feet, I will cast myself at those of His Mother Mary, and there I will remain prostrate until she has obtained my forgiveness; for this Mother of Mercy knows not and has never known, how to do otherwise than compassionate the miserable, and comply with the desires of the most destitute who fly to her for succor; and therefore if not by duty, at least by compassion, she will engage her Son to pardon me.” He later encourages sinners; “If you fear that on account of thy faults God in his anger will be avenged, what must you do? Go, have recourse to Mary, who is the hope of sinners; and, if you fear that she may refuse to take your part, know that she cannot do so, for God himself has imposed on her the duty of succoring the miserable.” “The most holy Virgin,” Montfort writes, “who is a Mother of sweetness and mercy, and who never lets herself be outdone in love and liberality, seeing that we give ourselves entirely to her… meets us in the same spirit.” Giving herself, engulfing us in the abyss of her virtues.
Many saints preceding Montfort found Mary the motivation for their love of Jesus. Saint Bonaventure uses the words that the prophet Isaias used regarding the Virgin Mary, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. In other words, whoever desires the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, let him seek for the flower of the Holy Ghost in the rod. That is, for Jesus in Mary, for by the rod we find the flower, and by the flower, God. If you desire to possess this flower, bend down the rod, which bears the flower, by prayer; and so you will obtain it.” Mary becomes our advocate, as Saint Justin tells us, “The Eternal Word uses Mary as an arbitrix.” An arbitrator is one to whose hands contending parties confide their whole case; so the saint meant to say, “that as Jesus is the mediator with the Eternal Father, so also is Mary our mediatrix with Jesus; and that He puts all the reasons that He has for pronouncing sentence against us into her hands.”
Again Saint Alphonsus gives evidence to beautiful aspects of this devotion: “children have always on their lips their mother’s name, and in every fear, in every danger, they immediately cry out, ‘Mother! Mother!’ Ah, most sweet Mary! ah, most loving Mother! this is precisely what you desire: that we should become children, and call on thee in every danger, and at all times have recourse to you, because you desire to help and save us, as you have saved all who have had recourse to you.” This practice of devotion gives to those who make use of it faithfully a great interior liberty, which is the liberty of the children of God. It also procures great blessings because Mary has a special love for her slaves of love.
The little book ends with a chapter on practices particular to this devotion, both interior and exterior. A thirty-three-day period of preparation through prayer and meditation is outlined for those who desire to consecrate themselves to Mary using Montfort’s formula. One of the outward manifestations of being a slave to Mary is to wear a reminder of one’s commitment, such as a chain. Regarding this Saint Louis points out, “Once there was nothing more infamous on earth than the cross, and now that wood is the most glorious boast of Christianity. Let us say the same of the irons of slavery. There was nothing more ignominious among the ancients; there is nothing more shameful even now among the heathens. But among Christians, there is nothing more illustrious than the chains of Jesus; for they unchain us and preserve us from the infamous fetters of sin and the Devil. They set us at liberty, and chain us to Jesus and Mary; not by compulsion and constraint, like galley-slaves, but by charity and love, like children.”