The Queen: Articles:
The de Montfort Way: Master of the Spiritual Life
Author: Fr. Victor Devy, SMM
This is the first of a series of articles covering specific aspects and topics of St. Louis’ Spirituality.
A brief survey of St. Louis Mary de Montfort’s position among the spiritual writers of his time will undoubtedly broaden one’s understanding of his spirituality. It must be admitted that too many foot-notes and references sometimes hinder rather than help meditation. Nevertheless, to penetrate the deeper meaning of a certain text, it may be necessary for some readers to have an idea of the author’s affinities with other writers. To know an author’s scientific and literary background is to acquire a better insight into, and a broader perception of his doctrine.
A well—known historian, Father N. Brémond, called de Montfort “the last of the great disciples of Cardinal de Bérulle.” This is a well-deserved encomium, but it must not be taken in an exclusive sense, as though St. Louis Mary were merely another writer in the Berullian School of Spirituality.
The fact is de Montfort blazed his own trail following, it is true, the general trend of Berullian thought but also integrating many other sources in a deep and lucid synthesis, which has since been characterized as The de Montfort Way, or the Monfortian Spirituality.
Strange as it may seem, this synthesis was elaborated and brought to near perfection during his theological studies in the Seminary of St. Sulpice, in Paris, or at the latest during the very first years of his missionary life, at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
MASTER OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
What he put down in writing was not merely a theory evolved from books; it was his own experience of interior life. He speaks, therefore, not only as a writer but also as a witness to the truth. The influence of his directors (mostly Jesuits and Sulpicians), a wide and sure knowledge of theology, acquired through study and discussions with “the most learned men of his time”, and above all, the Holy Spirit, had prepared him by a sanctity quite uncommon, even in his seminary days, for a special mission in the Church. He was to be an outstanding missionary for his own times and a master of spiritual life for future generations. Being a disciple trained by eminent masters, he comes to us as a highly qualified guide in the perennial quest for Divine Wisdom.
It has been noted that “best sellers” rarely survive their authors. If they become classical, they are incorporated into the school-program but read with reluctance and merely on compulsion. Not so with Fr. de Montfort’s Treatise on True Devotion, and his Love of the Eternal Wisdom: two small books, “best sellers“ both, written about three hundred years ago by a missionary who died in a remote Village of Vendée, in France. They are classics; yet no coercion need be exercised to have them read. Quietly, unobtrusively, they are making their way into the hearts of the faithful today, as though they had been written for our own times.
The discovery of the Treatise on True Devotion to Mary is a well-known fact and it seems providential that the long vigil “in the silence of a coffer” should be brought to an end in this age of ours.
At the beginning of the (20th) century, Pope Pius X derived his inspiration from the words of Saint Paul: “To re-establish all things in Christ.” (Eph. I, 10) Since then, the divine mission of the Church of leading mankind back to God has been greatly stressed and, at the same time, greater insistence has been put on devotion to Our Lady. The great encyclicals on the Mystical Body of Christ and on Sacred Liturgy, with the Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary are a splendid conclusion to this first part of our (20th) century. They open up the way to a more intense devotion to Mary as a means of establishing the Reign of Christ.
Although the Treatise on True Devotion is the best known among the spiritual writings of St. Louis, it is not the only work that assures him of a special rank in the gallery of Catholic authors. His most important works, if we look for terseness and originality, includes The Love of Eternal Wisdom, The Secret of Mary and the Treatise on True Devotion; but they can hardly be called three difierent books because of their one common theme: the acquisition of Divine Wisdom by a Total Consecration to Mary.
There is no reason to marvel at the fact that the Saint’s message to posterity is enclosed in a few books “small in volume but great in unction” (Benedict XV). If we leave in a class by themselves some of the most illustrious Doctors of the Church, how many writers, how many artists are known to the world only by one or two masterpieces? The history of the Church testifies that in many cases new directions, new avenues of thought were the result of short but precious books known to everybody such as, The Imitation of Cbrist, Tbe Introduction to a Devout Life, The Spiritual Exercises, The Glories of Mary, etc. to quote but a few and relatively recent examples. A quality proper to explorers is not to discover new truths, but to see them in a new light, and to present them to all in forceful coordination of principles and applications.
Why then should we be surprised to find that most of his principles and many of his practices of devotion were known before St. Louis’ time? Does he not himself acknowledge that he is indebted to many? It would be a poor recommendation for a doctrine to be absolutely new after 17 centuries of thought in the field of Marian studies. However, let it be clearly stated, Montfort did give us something new. He gave us a choice of fundemental principles, a religious logic in the presentation of the providential process of our salvation, a bold acknowledgement of the universality of Mary’s Mediation, all this and more, which is not easily found before him; and even now, over three centuries after his death, they are not always appreciated at their full value.
How true were these words of an excellent judge, Father Faber, in his Preface to the Treatise, in 1862: “(St. Louis) wrote some spiritual treatises which have already had a remarkable influence on the Church during the few years they have been known, and bid fair to have a much wider influence in years to come.”
Before entering into more details to establish de Montfort’s position in Christian spirituality by a broad survey of his sources, as far as they can be ascertained presently, we may underline a fact of no little importance in Marian devotion and Christian piety in general. It springs from the enumeration of so many Saints and Doctors in this matter. Devotion to Our Lady has been established, has been preached, has been practiced with deep and unsparing affection by many of the least sentimental and romantic of men, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, Cardinal de Bérulle, Bossuet, St. Alphonsus and that sturdy missionary, St. Louis de Montfort. Obviously, devotion to Mary is not a sign of an uncritical and emotional mind. It belongs to the very fundamentals of Christianity. A perfect union with Christ requires a perfect union with His Blessed Mother, His Associate in the salvation of mankind.
(To Be Continued)
