Perseverance and Mary, the Mother of God
Fr. Frank A. Setzer, SMM
St. Louis de Montfort lays down as a fifth fundamental truth of True Devotion to Mary, that we need Mary in order to persevere in grace. Perseverance in grace is the key to sanctity and eventually to final perseverance.
Our Lord Himself once said: ”Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the out-lays that are necessary, whether he has the means to complete it. (Luke 14: 28) Likewise in the spiritual life it would be of little avail if one were to begin with fervor but not persevere. This is where Mary’s necessary role fits into our spiritual life.
Fr. de Montfort tells us that within his own lifetime, he himself had witnessed the fall of some who had considered themselves ”Cedars of Lebanon,” that is, strong in faith and holiness. ”Alas,” he tells us, ”if they had but known the admirable devotion which I will unfold presently, they would have confided their treasure to a Virgin powerful and faithful, who would have kept it for them as if it had been her own possession.”
The topic of this article, therefore, is: We need Mary in order to persevere in grace.
A ll Grace comes to us through Mary. Perseverance is a grace or, rather, a succession of graces whereby we remain in the friendship of God and ultimately die in that friendship. This, too, then comes to us through Mary. It is the teaching of the Church that sufficient grace is granted to all to persevere in the observance of God’s law and save their souls. This sufficiency comes to us, then, through the agency of the Blessed Mother.
Since God has chosen to associate Mary with Him in the acquisition and distribution of all grace, her role becomes a necessary part of the plan of salvation and it is true to say that, by the will of God, we depend necessarily on her for all grace, including the grace of perseverance. This was God’s plan, not ours and we cannot presume to improve on it nor can we afford to disregard it. Just as in the order of nature we are born into a given family in given circumstances without our having had any say in the matter, so also in the supernatural order we are born into the family of God with Mary in her appointed and necessary role of Mother, without our having had any say in the matter. We cannot forego or escape her influence, we depend necessarily, after Christ, upon her. Truly, then, does Montfort say in the Fifth Fundamental Truth, that we ”need” Mary to persevere in grace.
We are Weak
However, given this sufficiency of grace and the fundamental possibility of persevering, it is not at all certain that we shall make use of it. Human nature being what it is, free-will remaining free to choose and, therefore, unpredictable, the difficulties besetting us being many and grave, the outcome must remain uncertain. Until we breathe our very last, there shall ever hang above our heads the sword of possible defection. We have ever to contend with the three-fold enemy: the traitor of the ”flesh” that we ever carry about with us, the spirit of the ”world” that leads away from Christ, and the ”devil” who is ever hard upon our heels. Indeed we can say with St. Louis de Montfort that it is ”very difficult” to preserve the graces we have received, and with St. Paul, that we carry our treasure in ”frail vessels.”
Neither age nor wisdom nor past virtue nor present strength can be a guarantee for the future. ”Believe me,” says St. Augustine, ”I speak the truth, I lie not, I have seen the cedars of Lebanon and the leaders of the flock fall whose ruin I no more expected than I would that of Gregory or Ambrose.” And Montfort re-echoes centuries later, ”How many stars of the firmament have we not seen fall miserably and in the twinkling of an eye lose all their height and brightness.” If among the disciples whose daily converse was with Jesus, who sat at His feet and learned directly from Him the words of eternal life, we find treason, faithlessness and cowardice, of these then we too must be capable. If a saint like Paul could warn another saint, Timothy, to beware lest he fall from grace, certainly this warning, with greater reason, holds good for us.
Mary is Strong
But there is an assurance born of confidence in the goodness and mercy of God and the all-powerful intercession of Mary. Devotion to Mary is a morally certain sign of predestination and perseverance in grace. Catholic tradition has always so affirmed by the mouths of the Fathers, the Doctors, the saints and the theologians. St. Louis De Montfort lists many authorities to support this and adds ”It is an infallible mark of pre-destination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.” Listen to St. John Damascene [(sometimes referred to as St. John of Damascus)]: ”Having confidence in you, O Mother of God, I shall be saved; being under your protection, I shall fear nothing; with your help I shall give battle to my enemies and put them to flight; for devotion to you is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom it is His will to save.”
For, indeed, who is better able than she to rout the enemies of our salvation? She alone, by her Immaculate Conception, has crushed the head of the serpent and won over him a complete and perfect victory. In her alone, of all human beings, the devil has never had any part. She is terrible to him as an army in battle array and she needs but to appear for him to rush headlong and confused from the scene. With Mary on our side, all the devils of hell, with all their cunning and malice, are helpless.
Assumption of the Blessed Mother: Italian Renaissance artist Titian (Tiziano Vecelli): Painted 1516
This painting remains in its original location, on the high altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice.
Editors Note: Queen of All Hearts’ Conference Audio #1: Devotion to Mary: Transformation of the Heart (link) includes the story of St. John of Damascus and the icon The Mother of God with Three Hands. We encorage all members to listen to this audio, even if you have heard it previously.
From his broad experience with souls and the fickleness of human nature, Fr. de Montfort saw the need of a solid devotion that would ”anchor” souls, so to speak, in the very heart of Mary and thereby assure their final perseverance.
She will save us from ourselves, from blindness of pride and inconstancy of will, lest we lose in a moment the treasure of grace accumulated during a life-time. She is the Virgo Potens who can and the Virgo Fidelis who will preserve for us the graces that we bank with her. ”She will keep them for us,” says Montfort, ”as if they were her own possessions and will even take as an obligation of justice upon herself to preserve them for us.” This she will do by removing the difficulties or temptations or, if these must be, by supplying the added assistance that will enable us more easily to remain steadfast in grace. ”She retains and keeps the saints in their plenitude so that it may not diminish; she prevents their virtues from being dissipated, their merits from perishing, their graces from being lost.” (St. Bonaventure)
Final Perseverance
The greatest of graces will be that of final perseverance or the happy conjunction of the moment of death and the state of grace. Strictly speaking, this cannot be merited ; otherwise free-will would not remain free and death would not be, as it in reality is, the term of the period of trial that is life on earth. It can however, be prayed for and our prayer, if it be right, is bound to be, by the promise of Christ, infallible. Prayer to Mary will be our best guarantee of perseverance. Death, with its awful finality, is the special province of Mary. In each Hail Mary we ask her to ”pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” ”Never was it known that anyone who sought her intercession was left unaided,” and so she will see to it that the hour of death finds us prepared. In the classic words of St. Bernard, ”When Mary holds us up, we do not fall; when she protects us, we need not fear; when she leads us, we do not tire; when she is favorable to us, we arrive at the harbor of safety.”
Total Consecration
It was to assure this final perseverance that Fr. de Montfort wrote his Treatise on True Devotion to Mary and expounded his perfect consecration to Jesus through Mary. From his broad experience with souls and the fickleness of human nature, Fr. de Montfort saw the need of a solid devotion that would ”anchor” souls, so to speak, in the very heart of Mary and thereby assure their final perseverance.
”By this devotion,” he writes, ”we entrust all that we possess to the Blessed Virgin, who is faithful; we take her for the universal depository of all our goods of nature and of grace. It is in her fidelity that we trust; it is on her power that we lean; it is on her mercy and charity that we build, in order that she may preserve and augment our virtues and merits, in spite of the devil, the world and the flesh, who put forth all their efforts to take them from us . . . It is she who obtains for those who attach themselves to her the graces of fidelity to God and perseverance.” (T.D. Nos. 173, 175)
