Mary the Unknown
Fr. A. Raymond, SMM
“And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (John 19 :27).
S t. John who was the confident of the Sacred Heart – and the first confident of the Virgin Mary – learned from the Savior Himself Mary’s role in the economy of man’s redemption. If he has left us very little on the subject it is because Mary asked to remain hidden, wishing that the whole of man’s attention be focused on her Divine Son. It was not yet time to make her known.
“God,” writes St. Louis de Montfort, “heard her prayers” when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account. He took pleasure in hiding her from all human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection and Assumption.
”God the Father consented that she should work no miracle, at least no public one, during her life, although He had given her the power to do so. God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her. God the Holy Spirit, though she was His faithful spouse, consented that His Apostles and Evangelists should speak very little of her, and no more than was necessary to make Jesus Christ known” (T.D. Nos. 3-4).
The Holy Fathers have said wonderful things about Mary, especially St. Besnard, but all of them knew that the time was not yet come to say more about her … when, lo and behold! Montfort comes upon the scene, towards the end of the seventeenth century. Like a prophet he proclaims that the time has come to make Mary better known. “God wishes,” he writes, “that His holy Mother should be at present more known, more loved, more honored, than she has ever been. This, no doubt, will take place if the predestinate enter, with the grace and light of the Holy Spirit, into the interior and perfect practice which I will disclose to them shortly” (T.D. No. 55).
The actual realization of this divine will is a blaring fact. We daily see more and more Christians turning to her. … Pope Pius XII, has referred to this more than once, particularly in the opening lines of the Apostolic Constitution Muniflcentissimus Deas, for the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption. “It is a great consolation,” he says, “to see … devotion towards the Mother of God in full swing and increasing daily, giving signs everywhere of a better and more holy life.”
Is Montfort a stranger to this movement? Not at all. His powerful apostolic voice, first heard over two centuries ago, rings forth with ever increasing volume throughout the Church. The little treatise in which he has condensed his whole Marian doctrine – the Treatise on True Devotion to Mary – discovered [almost] one hundred and eighty years ago, has already encircled the globe. More, it has ever won its affection. Today it is translated into almost every language, including the African and Asiatic dialects. Nay, it seems that with the years this Treatise is taking on an added importance.
From all quarters, souls in search of interior perfection come to quench their thirst at this abundant source of spiritual life. True Christians, those sincerely intent on living a Christ-like life, are attracted to it in great numbers, by a special grace. Consecrated souls are the first to approach it. Whether they belong to recently founded religious congregations or to the old established orders, all vie with one another in borrowing from Fr. de Montfort’s doctrine its pure gospel content.
Virgin Mary Annunciate: Italian Painter Fra Angelico: 1431
This image is from a painting that hangs in the Montfort Spiritual Center.
With this article, Father A. Raymond, a Montfort Father and seasoned missionary of Our Lady, opens a series of sermonettes leading up to Fr. de Montfort’s Total Consecration.
If he has left us very little on the subject, it is because Mary asked to remain hidden, wishing that the whole of man’s attention be focused on her Divine Son. It was not yet time to make her known. … “God,” writes St. Louis de Montfort, “heard her prayers” when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account. He took pleasure in hiding her from all human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection and Assumption.
I might be asked: to what may we attribute this growing enthusiasm for Fr. de Montfort’s little Treatise? The answer may well have been given by Archbishop Caron, of Genoa, when he said that Montfort wrote his Treatise ”as one inspired by the Holy Spirit.”
Father Faber, the illustrious English spiritual writer [who wrote the forward within the first English translation of the Treatise], developed the same idea when he wrote: ”If I may dare to say so, there is a growing feeling of something inspired and supernatural about it, as we go on studying it.”
Besides, has not the Church itself, through the authorized voice of its pontiffs, signaled out to the Christian world the high supernatural value of this work? For instance, Pius X wrote, … ”We heartily recommend TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN, so admirably written by Saint Louis de Montfort, and to all who read it grant the Apostolic Benediction.”
On April 28, 1917, at the occasion of the second centenary of the death of St. Louis de Montfort, Benedict XV wrote these significant words to the Superior General of the Fathers of the Company of Mary and the Daughters of Wisdom: ”Your holy founder has endeavored to instill into your hearts a singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. More, he wished it to be your proper and particular spirit to promote among men the reign of God by promoting devotion to His divine Mother. But, as a most effective means for his apostolate, he has left you, in order that you might explain it to the faithful, that book he himself had written, TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN; a book that is small in size but of such high authority and of such great unction. We heartily rejoice over the fact that through your efforts it has already been widespread. May it continue to spread even more and thus revive the Christian spirit in an ever increasing number of souls.”
To revive the Christian spirit! What is it, indeed, that souls lack most? – To understand and live perfectly their baptismal promises.
The Council of Trent makes it a duty of strict justice to devote and consecrate ourselves forever to Our Lord and Redeemer, as slaves of love. It reminds us insistently that at holy baptism we have made this promise, ”for we have promised to renounce Satan and the world, and we have delivered ourselves up entirely to Jesus Christ.”
Now the whole object of Fr. de Montfort’s Treatise is to promote the perfect renewal of the baptismal vows and their practice, through Holy Slavery towards Our Lord. But in order that this Holy Slavery be at once more faithful and easier to accept, Montfort leads us to our Mother and Mediatrix, and consecrates us to her by the bonds of filial servitude. Adopted children of God through redemption, we are also, in virtue of that same redemption, children of Mary, the Co-Redemptrix. Thus, our religion would not be perfect if, to our love for the Father we did not add love for the Mother.
The way of spiritual childhood is as popular as ever in the Church. The charming little Sister Theresa of the Infant Jesus has rendered it more tangible than ever by her most uneventful life.
Spiritual childhood ! Wonderful! But, may I ask, how can one live such a life without Mary?
Montfort has given us the true formula. In the spiritual life, he tells us, ”there are a Father, Who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father” (T.D. No.30).
The logical step, therefore, is to make of our spiritual life, a true life of children of God and of Mary. Let us submit ourselves to the power and influence of the Mother to become true sons of the Father. In a word, one must conclude that in the spiritual life everything may be boiled down to this, namely, to understand Mary’s role as Mediatrix of all graces and then abandon oneself completely to that same mediation.
Privileged souls to whom it has pleased God to reveal, by a singular grace, the great secret of sanctity which is the Holy Slavery of Love, do not open the Treatise on True Devotion to Mary, as you would any other good book. … It is a most precious book and will prove most useful to you. To use the words of Bishop Garnier: ”Read it as it has been written, that is, with humility and piety; read it slowly, with deep reflection; and then put its teachings into practice; you will experience great joy and will draw much profit from it” (March 11, 1922).
Since the time has come to know the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, we must enter wholeheartedly into the movement by procuring the books that will make her better known to us. And, of course, the first book that we recommend is THE TREATISE ON THE TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN, by St. Louis de Montfort.
Each time you pick it up to read, remember the advice given by St. Louis De Montfort himself : “Before you read any further, lest you should be carried away by a too eager and natural desire to know this truth, kneel down and say devoutly the Ave Maris Stella and the Veni Creator in order to understand and appreciate this divine mystery” (Secret of Mary, No. 2) .
