Q&A: Could you demonstrate how this True Devotion to Mary is an easy, short, perfect, and secure way of attaining union with Our Lord?
Father Roger Charest, SMM
Question submitted by a member from Nassau, Bahamas
Nos. 152-169, of the True Devotion is the answer to your question. It may be true that Montfort has filled these pages with figures of speech. But if you read this section slowly and attentively you will discover some basic principles of asceticism and Mariology that demonstrate quite accurately what makes his way easy, short, perfect, and secure in attaining union with Christ.
Easy Way
For instance, when St. Louis Mary calls Holy Slavery an “easy way“, it is evident that he does not disregard the necessity of suffering and mortification. The crosses of spiritual life are graces. And besides receiving such a grace, Mary’s slave receives from Our Lady another very special grace: the grace that makes this cross easy to carry. When we read: ” (Mary) .. . prepares her servants’ crosses with such maternal sweetness and pure love as to make them gladly acceptable …” (T.D. 154), it reminds us of the poster from “Boys Town” and its stirring motto: “He’s not heavy, Father, he’s my brother.” The weight of a burden will often seem to decrease because of one’s motive in carrying it. Our Lady gives her slave the grace to carry his daily crosses joyously … and thus they are not so heavy.
Perfect Way
Much of the same reasoning applies to his statement that Holy Slavery is a “short way”. The road to perfection will seem short, as any other journey, if Our Lady gives us the grace to travel it with joy and facility.
Holy Slavery is the “perfect way” to union with Christ because Mary is the very means intended by God for our sanctification. Here he describes without mentioning it the spiritual “mold” designed by God to turn out Christ-like reproductions. “Mary is the great mold of God, made by the Holy Ghost, to form a true God-Man by the Hypostatic Union and to form also a man-God by grace” (S.M. 17).
If someone pours himself completely into this mold by the full submission of Holy Slavery, he is using in a perfect manner the very means intended by God for man’s salvation. Montfort could not but call it a perfect way.
Finally, to show that Holy Slavery is a “secure way” to Christ, Montfort uses the double argument of experience and reason. It is a secure way because it has been effectively practiced over the centuries and throughout the Catholic world. Secondly, it will guide one directly to Christ because that is the very characteristic of a Mediatrix. And Mediatrix between Christ and us is precisely what God intended her to be.
A much longer commentary of Montfort’s “fifth motive” could be given, but this much, I think, should answer your question.
For instance, when St. Louis Mary calls Holy Slavery an “easy way“, it is evident that he does not disregard the necessity of suffering and mortification. The crosses of spiritual life are graces. And besides receiving such a grace, Mary’s slave receives from Our Lady another very special grace; the grace that makes this cross easy to carry. When we read: ” (Mary) .. . prepares her servants’ crosses with such maternal sweetness and pure love as to make them gladly acceptable …”. The weight of a burden will often seem to decrease because of one’s motive in carrying it. Our Lady gives her slave the grace to carry his daily crosses joyously … and thus they are not so heavy.
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