Is My Devotion to Mary “True”?
Father Roger Charest, SMM
Former Managing Editor of the Queen of All Hearts Magazine
Is My Devotion True?
In a previous chat, I have expressed unequivocally my great respect for and filial attachment to our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. I respect him not only as a person, but especially in his teachings, as the successor of Peter and the Vicar of Christ on earth. I think everyone knows what an intellectual as well as spiritual giant he is. In my opinion, every Catholic at least should realize by now that Pope John Paul II is one of GOD’s greatest gifts to His Church and to our modem world.
In spite of all this, I find relatively little being preached or written about John Paul’s immense treasure of writings and teachings in our own Catholic Churches and press, here in the USA. I assume that when his predecessor in office, St. Peter, preached or wrote anything, his messages were promptly promulgated and preached throughout the early Church.
On the other hand, when Pope John Paul II wrote his encyclical letter for the Marian Year, “Mother of the Redeemer,” I wonder how many of our pulpits announced it, or even thought of explaining it to the people in the pews?
Mary’s Unique Role
I wonder how many Catholics in this country, for example, know that in the above-mentioned encyclical, the Holy Father gave us a masterful explanation of Mary’s unique role, her maternal mediation in the Church? That he described true devotion to Mary as a way to “authentic Marian Spirituality,” seen in the light of Tradition? That he held up St. Louis de Montfort as a witness and teacher of this Marian Spirituality, “who proposes consecration to Jesus Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments”. (No. 48).
The purpose of the Queen of All Hearts Magazine, as we stated and re-stated, over the years, is to promote true and solid devotion to Jesus through Mary, i.e., a devotion solidly anchored in the Scriptures and the teachings and practices of the Church through the centuries to our own day. Of such is St. Louis de Montfort’s form of true devotion to Mary.
Of course, it is more than just a practice of devotion. It is a way of spiritual life. It consists not in burdening oneself with extra prayers, etc. – even though certain prayers, like the Rosary, for example, are recommended – but in uniting our daily prayers, sacrifices and good deeds, our every thought, word and action of each day, with the intentions of Jesus and Mary, for the greater glory of God and the good of our neighbor.
the Holy Father gave us a masterful explanation of Mary’s unique role, her maternal mediation in the Church? That he described true devotion to Mary as a way to “authentic Marian Spirituality,” seen in the light of Tradition? That he held up St. Louis de Montfort as a witness and teacher of this Marian Spirituality, “who proposes consecration to Jesus Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments”.
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True Devotion, And A Way Of Life
As St. Louis de Montfort points out: “If you live this devotion sincerely, you will give more glory to Jesus in a month than in many years of a more demanding devotion. Since you do everything through the Blessed Virgin as required by this devotion, you naturally lay aside your own intentions, no matter how good they appear to you. You abandon yourself to Our Lady’s intentions even though you do not know what they are. Thus you share in the high quality of her intentions which are so pure that, etc. ” (T.D. No. 222).
How beautiful, how theologically sound and profound these words of our Saint! What a far cry from the superficial devotees described by him in his True Devotion, No. 96: “Superficial devotees are people whose entire devotion to Our Lady consists in exterior practices. Only the externals of devotion appeal to them because they have no interior spirit . . . All that appeals to them is the emotional aspect of this devotion, but the substance of it has no appeal at all.
“If they do not feel a warmth in their devotions, they think they are doing nothing; they become upset, and give up everything, or else they do things only when they feel like it”. And the Saint concludes with the following: “The world is full of these shallow devotees . . ”
To find out if your devotion to Mary is really “true,” dear reader, may I suggest you read, or re-read, St. Louis de Montfort’s TRUE DEVOTION and, you guessed it, Pope John Paul’s II Marian Year encyclical; MOTHER THE REDEEMER.
