Q&A: I find that Saint Louis de Montfort quotes Scripture in strange ways. I can’t even find some of his quotes in my Bible. Also, his explanation of the text seems to me at least, to go way beyond what the text actually says. Our study group said that a good example of all this is in #156 of the True Devotion. Could you help us out?
Father J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Montfort’s Quotes From The Bible
You must be referring to the last paragraph of #156.
“According to a spiritual interpretation of this word of the Holy Spirit, “senectus mea in misericorida uberi, ”‘My old age will be found in the mercy of the bosom’. It is in the bosom of Mary that people who are young grow mature in enlightenment, in holiness, in experience and in wisdom, and in a short time reach the fullness of the age of Christ. For it was Mary’s womb which ’encompasses and produced a perfect man’. That same womb held the One whom the whole universe can neither encompass nor contain.”
It is understandable that you could not find the first text – “My old age will be found in the mercy of the bosom” – in your Bible! It is a translation based on an incorrect reading of the Hebrew of Psalm 92:10 (or in the Vulgate edition, 91:11). Although the verse may be difficult to translate, it is agreed that the original text goes something like this; “thou hast anointed me with the purest of oil,” or “You have poured over me fresh oil.”
Saint Louis de Montfort had before him an edition of the Vulgate which all agree today was an erroneous understanding of the original Hebrew. His spiritual interpretation of the text – although true in itself cannot be said to be based on Psalm 91:10. His insight in itself is beautiful; “in the bosom of Mary, people who are young grow mature .. . and in a short time reach the fullness of the age of Christ.”
Saint Jerome Proposed that this Text is a Pure Prophecy
The second text; Father de Montfort is quoting implicitly from Jeremiah 31:22. He states that it was Mary’s womb which “encompasses and produced a perfect man”. The text of Jeremiah reads; “For the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth; A woman shall compass a man” (Vulgate). Or according to the Revised Standard Version, “For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth, a woman protects a man”.
It was Saint Jerome himself who proposed that this text is a pure prophecy. A prophecy of Jesus and Mary, i.e., Mary encompasses THE Man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ. For she bears this Man in her womb. Saint Louis de Montfort bases himself on Saint Jerome’s commentary. However, today it is taken to mean that a woman protects a man which is interpreted to refer to the great security (imagine, it was said, a place so secure that a woman can protect a man!) during the return to the new settlement in Palestine. Or, perhaps it is stating that the woman (a personification of Israel), will adhere to her spouse, Yahweh, after years of infidelity.
The interpretation of Jerome, even if not current among modern exegetes, does express the astounding truth that Mary
encompasses in her womb, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, whom as the liturgy sings, the entire universe cannot contain.
