A Message From John Paul II to Montfort Missionaries of Today: Part II

Happy Are Those Souls . . .

“In order to know the Eternal Wisdom, uncreated and incarnate, Grignion de Montfort constantly invited people to put their trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary” (n. 4).

Here the Holy Father is quite simply telling the Montfortian Family to live and to act like their Founder. Telling us  to discover and to journey along each day the path of holiness, wisdom and love that is Mary. The papal Message challenges the Montfort Missionaries in two dimensions.

A Challenge In Life

First, there is once again the summons to holiness, to genuine mystical Love at work in the lives of ordinary people. “Saint Louis-Marie also calls on us to abandon ourselves entirely to Mary in order to welcome her presence in the very depth or our souls”.  (n. 4). Montfort Missionaries would do well to return often to the Prayer to Mary at the end of the Secret of Mary (SM 68-69).

The scope, texture, energy, goal of all our ministry comes only from being a faithful child and slave of Mary. It is Mary who accomplishes conversion and transformation in us; “Destroy in me everything that is displeasing to God. Uproot it and bring it to nothing. Implant in me all that you deem to be good; improve it and make it increase in me” (SM- 68). It is the faith, the humility, the prayer, the love, the heart and soul of Mary that form a good Montfort Missionary. They allow him to work gallantly for her even until death without any self-interest.

Help Christians Find a Perfect Devotion to Mary

Secondly, Pope John Paul entrusts to the Montfortians a mission, one that flows from this intimate and profound relationship with Mary our Mother. The mission is to help the Christian people. Help those to hunger for and to find a solid, enlightened, correct devotion to the Mother of God. This was St. Louis-Marie’s own task; to establish a devotion that was true, rooted in the Word of God; proving itself by a concrete maturity in faith, hope, love and all the gifts of the Spirit.

We live in a world where so many seek after visible sign and wonders. We live where the mantle of the Virgin Mary is often wrapped around sentiments or ideologies that run contrary to the Gospel.  Montfort Missionaries have the mission to witness to a simpler, purer, more wonderful reality;  the Incarnation of God in the womb of a woman who believes, who hopes, who loves.

Every Montfort Missionary, by his vocation and religious profession, must share in this Marian mission. Without doubt formal Marian apostolates might take the lead with books, articles, conferences that engage the Montfortians in academic and scholarly dialogue with the Church and the world today. An international Congregation must open its head and heart to many cultures, trusting in young confreres coming from the countries of Asia, Africa, Madagascar and Latin America to themselves seek new paths, new expressions, new images that reveal the role of Mary in the mystery of Christ. But also in Montfortian parishes, sanctuaries, spiritual centers, in services to the Dioceses – in all our ministries there ought to be an active, concrete and creative desire to share with the local Church the gift of God that is within us; Jesus living in Mary.

. . . Called by God to Preach Missions in the Steps of the Poor Apostles

It is a tautology to say that a Missionary of the Company of Mary is a Missionary, but that is what each Montfortian is called to be by his vocation and religious profession. Pope John Paul tells us that St. Louis-Marie “was a missionary of extraordinary range and influence” (n. 5). The final part of the Pope’s Message is a ringing call to the missionary life today, in the footsteps of Montfort, but full of zeal, creativity and imagination to meet the cultures and today’s problems.

Montfort Missionaries no longer restrict themselves to Bretagne or France or Europe; they no longer only arrive in a local Church as founders or foreign missionaries. Montfortians today are Indians, Congolese, Malawians, Malgaches, Indonesians, Filipinos – as well as a new generation of Europeans and those from the Americas. Montfortians today must truly embrace the missionary passion and creativity of their Father, St. Louis-Marie. This burning missionary charity must be the other face, of their luminous holiness.

Helping . . .

L est we forget the accomplishments of our Founder, Pope John Paul names with extraordinary perspicacity the mission traits of Montfort.

“Zeal for the Word of God, his solicitude for the very poor. his ability to make himself understood by the simplest folk and to stimulate their piety, his qualities for organizing, his initiatives to sustain fervor by founding spiritual movements and to involve the laity in the service of the poor . ..” (n. 5).

Then the Holy Father says that all this, with practical adaptations, can inspire the apostles of today for the new evangelization. Indeed, yes. Montfort, that “missionary of extraordinary range and influence,” has bequeathed to his followers a model for evangelization; a model that burns with Spirit and Life, that is wide-open for daring and creative risks; that yearns to reach the simple, the poor, the ordinary people in ways that speak to their hearts.

. . . Wisdom of Love

Helping the Wisdom of Love to take flesh in the hearts of men and women today, allowing that Love to heal and nurture the Church and society and the economy and the family of nations – this is the task of the Montfort Missionary in the new millennium. We must undertake it with fire and with love, very near to the people, even as the presence of Jesus and Mary is at the center of his own heart.

The Holy Father could not end his description of Montfort’s Apostolic Ministry without reference to his insistence on the renewal of the promises of Baptism. The sacrament ‘Which consecrates us to God and constitutes the community” (n. 5). Here lies a vast field for the Montfort Missionaries to explore and to develop in the new millennium.

What are the roots, the seeds, the fruits of the Sacrament of Baptism in the life of a contemporary Christian? What must we turn away from; Furthermore, what must we turn toward in a particular culture? What will our consecration to God look like and feel like today? What are the face, the hands, the heart of a contemporary Christian community and what type of activity does it engage in? In our Montfortian Ministries and parishes, how can we raise our participation in the dying and rising of Christ – the awareness of our Baptism -into explicit consciousness and into a way of life for one and all?

Renew Your Presence . . .

Side by side with Montfort’s passion to reveal the transforming beauty and power of Baptism is his relentless love and service of the poor. Thus in his Message to the Montfortian Family, Pope John Paul II unequivocally tells us, “renew your presence among the poor . . .” (n. 6). This presence ought to be a mirror, a prolongation of the good Father de Montfort’s almost intuitive understanding of the poor; his nearness, tenderness toward the little ones.

This renewed presence among the poor is not limited by geography, age or ministry: all countries, all conditions of health or age, all ministries offer the Montfort Missionaries innumerable opportunities to place themselves side by side with the very poor. The choice is ours. We can live in heart and in deed on the side of the powerful and the comfortable, or we can open our hearts and commit our lives in the cause of the outcasts, the lonely, the suffering, the needy.

. . . Among the Poor

Allow me to mention just one type of renewed presence among the poor. It seems to call out to Montfortians in many countries. The plight of refugees, displaced persons and immigrants can be seen in cities, towns and villages all over the world. Often we have confreres returning from foreign missions (or confreres from younger entities) with a wealth of language and cultural experiences which creatively could be put to the service of the new poor at our doorsteps.

Perhaps unused residences or spaces could be made available for refugees. Already in many entities across the Congregation there is a wonderful, growing commitment of some confreres to re-orient their talents and expertise, to redirect resources in order to reach out to this crying need of our time. Could not each of our Montfortian parishes, retreat houses, sanctuaries and pilgrimage centers also become a place where the poor and the stranger know themselves to be understood and welcomed? “Renew your presence among the poor . . .

May My Soul Sing Out . . .

For too many of us perhaps, our Montfortian heritage has remained a bit unknown. Unknown  like photos and mementoes in an old album. The demands of pastoral ministry, developments in theology, changes in society, unfamiliarity  with contemporary research on Montfortian themes; all these have contributed to a certain reticence, confusion and even ignorance on the part of Montfort Missionaries when they are invited to present the spirituality of St. Louis-Marie. For this reason, let us take Pope John Paul’s (II) admonition to heart.  “I encourage you; make this treasure bear fruit; it must not remain hidden” (n. 6). There is a world of young people who search for meaning in their lives and for an art of living.

There are many movements which take their inspiration from St. Louis-Marie, but who need guides and supports to place all that in a solid and grounded context. A new contemporary generation of Montfortian scholars and researchers, preachers and spiritual directors must prepare themselves to share the treasure, to open the coffers and allow our Founder’s way of holiness to touch the hearts of men and women who are waiting for its beauty and power. Historically it is true that Montfort and his spirituality were often known and disseminated without the presence of Montfort Missionaries. But possessing such a secret of h0llness, such a way of Wisdom, how can we not do all in our power to shout it from the crossroads and rooftops?

. . . and Proclaim . . .

“Poor among the poor, profoundly integrated into the Church despite the lack of understanding he had to face” (n. 1), that is how the Holy Father describes St. Louis-Marie. Montfort Missionaries must also be men of the Church. To be conscientiously inserted into the pastoral activity of the local and national Church.  Very much ready to work side by side with the lay people to spread the Good News. And to build the foundations of the Kingdom of God in this neighborhood, this parish, this diocese. And yet, like St. Louis-Marie himself, Montfortians will also dare to become Liberos; men free with the freedom of God; men who, with the discernment of the community, will be ready to move on to other needs despite the personal and communal risks which that might demand.

Pope John Paul says of Montfort; “A Gospel wayfarer inflamed by the love of Jesus and of his holy Mother, he knew how to touch the hearts of the crowds, and how to make them love the Redeeming Christ contemplated on the Cross. May he support the efforts of the evangelizers of our times!” (n. 5). May St. Louis-Marie indeed support and guide all the efforts of his sons and daughters to incarnate the Wisdom of Love in the world of today. May he set our hearts afire with the love of Jesus and Mary. And obtain for us all that we need to touch and to ignite the hearts of those whom we meet!