St. Pope John Paul II: The Book Was the Turning Point of My Life

This Book . . .

Pope John Paul’s devotion to Mary is well known. His spiritual life is permeated with love for Christ’s Mother and ours. He has chosen for his coat of arms a large M on a blue background with the words “Totus Tuus,” I am all Yours. These words express his total consecration to Our Lady according to Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. “I am all Yours and completely dedicated to You.”

John Paul II is surely one of those priests chosen and predestined to dwell on the fertile mountain “where God delights to dwell, and dwell forever.” (Montfort’s “Prayer for Missionaries,” No. 25) His devotion to Mary is deeply rooted. As a child he loved to tarry in his parish church, where a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is venerated. He fixed his eyes on her, especially on school-mornings, when his schoolmates gathered for their morning prayers.

We read of the great attraction he had, as a young man for the Marian shrine of “Kalvaria,” situated in the verdant low-lying hills some twelve kilometers from his home. The shrine has 44 chapels, and is an ideal place for meditating on the Passion of Christ and the mystery of Mary’s life. His grandparents were his guides in prayer. He kept his eyes on his loved ones, his father especially, who frequently went there after his wife died, to pray and to weep. “Behold Thy Mother.” The young Karol felt that these words were meant for him. His love grew. One day, as a student, he went to Jasna Gora, “the Mountain bathed in Light,” and he entrusted his life to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa.

A Decisive Turning Point In My Life

In 1939, the Nazi troops invaded Poland and deported everyone without a job to Germany. This is how Karol became employed in the Solway plant. During his breaks he read and reread Montfort’s little book. “This book,” he confided to the French author, André Frossard, “was a decisive turning-point in my life. I say ‘turning-point’, but in fact it was a long inner journey. A journey that coincided with my clandestine preparation for the priesthood. It was at that time that this curious treatise came into my hands. The Traité is one of those books that it is not enough to ‘have read.’ I remember carrying it on me for a long time; even at the sodium factory, with the result that its hand-some binding became spotted with lime.”

On November 24, 1978, at the end of a private audience granted to the Major Superiors of Religious Orders, Pope John Paul asked the Superior General of the Montfort Missionaries, “Are there any sons or Daughters of Father de Montfort in Poland”? Then with a broad smile and extending his arms in a gesture of admiration, he exclaimed; “Montfort, Montfort, what a beautiful doctrine.”

Three days later, meeting an English Montfort Father, John Molloy, he confided: “I have thoroughly studied his doctrine: it pleases me so much. It is from Montfort that I chose my motto: ‘Totus Tuus.’ ”

Consecration To The Mother of God

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Gora, during his first pilgrimage to Poland after being elected Pope, he loudly proclaimed the name “Montfort” associating him with two other Marian Saints, Saint Bernard and Maximilian Kolbe. “Consecration to the Mother of God, issuing from the heart and the will . .. All through Mary. This is authentic proof of the presence of Mary, for Christ and His Church – and it corresponds to this tradition of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Grignion de Montfort and Maximilian Kolbe.”

I also recall another time he brought Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. In the limelight when he said, in the presence of the French clergy, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, on May 30, 1980, “You French priests have the good fortune of being heirs to a great number of holy priests. I am thinking of Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint John Eudes and Saint Louis Marie of Montfort.”

But it was in 1987, in his Encyclical “The Mother of the Redeemer” that John-Paul II testifies that Saint Louis Marie Grignion was a teacher and a witness of Marian spirituality. The Holy Father prayed: “Mother of the Church I entrust myself to your maternal love; O Mother, I am all yours, and entrust the whole Church to you. I entrust the whole of humanity: all men, all peoples and nations. Accept, O Mother, this trust. Mother, do not abandon me! O Mother deign to guide us.”

St. Louis de Montfort: A Master of Marian Spirituality

In 1987 the name “Montfort” was given world-wide attention. In his Encyclical, “Mother of the Redeemer, ” the Holy Father presented Saint Louis Grignion as a witness and master of Marian spirituality.

These words remain engraved in my heart: “I would like to recall, among the many witnesses and teachers of this spirituality, the figure of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, who proposes consecration to Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments.” TD No. 48

Spiritually formed by Montfort, the Holy Father has often prayed: “Mother of the Church! I entrust myself to you in your slavery of love; I am all Thine (Yours). O Mother, I entrust the whole Church to you.

“I consecrate to You the whole of mankind, all men, all peoples and all nations. Please O Mother, accept our offering! Do not abandon us! 0 Mother, be my Guide.”

It is with good reason that John Paul II is called; “A Pope totally given to Mary and a true Montfortian at heart and in Spirit.”