Q&A: I have St. Louis de Montfort’s writings. I don’t understand how he can claim that a person truly devoted to Our Lady is not timid or fretful?
Father J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
The electronic concordance of the True Devotion tells me that you must be referring to TD #109: “Thus a person truly devoted to our Blessed Lady is not changeable, not fretful, not scrupulous, not timid.”
Let’s first take a moment to look at those words.
- Changeable: Fickle, irresolute, or as variable as a weathercock on the roof of a barn. Hardly compatible with the solid desire to live Christ Jesus.
- Fretful: peevish, gloomy, regularly annoyed. We’re caught up with our own unworthiness and a pessimistic view of just about everything – as if God’s “motherly Providence” (as Montfort terms it) were only empty words!
- Scrupulous: Sure we should be scrupulous in living the Gospel – which means that we should FULLY live Jesus. But remember that for Montfort, “scrupulous” ultimately means not to accept that we are unconditionally loved by God. It leads to over-concern, over-anxiety about almost everything. It freezes us in fear and worry.
- Timid: To be hesitant, if not afraid to live our Catholic faith openly, proudly, joyfully. Pope John Paul stated, “We can no longer expect people to come to us; there must instead be a new missionary outreach, with dedicated men and women and young people going forth in Christ’s name to invite people into the community of the Church.” Timid people need not apply for the task!
How can Saint Louis de Montfort make such claims which some people believe are only exaggerations? First, there is no doubt that this vagabond missionary truly believes what he has just said. And if you ask him, “how is it possible that devotion to Mary can produce such wonders?,” he would, I think, have several answers ready. The most evident one is – are we not related to each other and in so many ways dependent on each other? Do we not influence each other, most especially those we live with, or those whose friendship we share? No one can doubt it. Now if we share our life with Our Lady through solid devotion to her, isn’t it at least likely that her faith, her beauty will rub off on us? What does that mean? Simply this: she can influence us only according to her personality, as we influence others according to our own personality. What is her personality? The question would be better put: “Who is her personality?” The answer is Jesus. In the sense that she is a total YES to the Lord, she is the Immaculate Conception who is so alive in Christ Jesus that she is beyond our ability to fathom.
Stain Glass in Infant Jesus Chapel, Port Jefferson, NY
This window of the Infant Jesus Chapel is on the grounds of a hospital founded in the early 1900’s by the Daughters of Wisdom. Note the parent carrying a wounded child unable to walk. The hospital originally focused on children who could not walk. Note also Mary. She holds the hand of Jesus. However the style is very similar to Hodegetria: She Who Points the Way. Two wonderful versions of that painting reside on this website. View them for comparison.
