Mary, As Seen by Montfort and Newman
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
Though separated by time and of widely different backgrounds, St. Louis de Montfort and John Henry Newman shared a common vision of Mary as her image comes to mind in daily life.
MARY: MONTFORT AND NEWMAN
John Henry Newman after he became a Catholic, travelled to Rome in 1846. He was impressed along the way by the churches of Milan, especially the church of St. Fidelis.
Its classical form with its qualities of brightness, grace and simplicity reminded him of Our Lady. This church, “Has such a sweet, smiling, open countenance,” so very different from “the intentional sadness” of the Gothic style.
A few months later he wrote of the spirit of the religious congregation he would like to establish. “Our whole line has been a sort of domestic one – easy, familiar and not rigid – with a special devotion to St. Mary, the special patroness of such habits of mind, so far as they are virtuous.”
These descriptions have all the value of incidental reference. They are understudied, stated not argued. Our Lady simply came to mind. The classic beauty of what he sees, as well as his hopes for the future, suggest her image … smiling, open, relaxed, familiar.
Newman was severe on selected quotations from Montfort which were presented to him, and perhaps the temperaments of the Victorian Englishman and the French Breton were very different. Yet they are at one, as the image of Our Lady comes to mind in daily life. She is someone they are at home with, when everyday life suggests her lovely presence.
Saints Louis de Montfort and John Henry Newman
“We must gradually acquire the habit of recollecting ourselves interiorly and so form within us an idea or spiritual image of Mary”.
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RECOLLECTION
St. Louis-Marie particularly encourages a recollection of her image as an invaluable means of attaining a true feeling for God in Christ. “We must gradually acquire the habit of recollecting ourselves interiorly and so form within us an idea or spiritual image of Mary”. (SM 47). FN #3
Habits are built up gradually, and recollection, if it is ever attained, is the result of discipline and motivation. It means that I am wholly gathered in the present moment. My attention is given wholly to whatever is there. This is the state of mind of the mature person, whose center of gravity, it has been well said, is always wherever he or she actually is.
This is not easily achieved and few have such maturity. The Christian wishing to respond, in the present moment, to God giving himself in Christ through the Spirit, would surely welcome whoever or whatever might help him to do just that. It is in this light that St. Louis-Marie sees Our Lady.
IMAGE OF MARY
She must become, as it were, “an Oratory for the soul … a Tower of David … a burning lamp lighting up our inmost soul and inflaming us with love for God”. (SM.47). As usual, he uses the language of the contemplative to describe what he has already found. Hers is a protective presence, quiet, illuminating, never for a moment dulling the central presence of God. Warming to her, “our inmost soul” opens to the ever-present love of God.
If this image of Our Lady increasingly becomes part of the fabric of our reality, eventually, and perhaps sooner rather than later, “She will be a sacred place of repose where we can contemplate God in her company”. (SM.47). She grounds us in the God who is her life. Her image suggests the transcendent. There is always more than we can see. And all of this free from tension as we find in her, “a sacred place of repose”. The image reflects and reminds us of the unseen reality which is God.
Wholly feminine, and from her creation, open and receptive to God in her transparent being, she is particularly able to do this. Overshadowed by God’s creative Spirit, the Word became flesh through her; “Full of grace and truth … glory as of the only Son from the Father”. (Jn. 1:14). Our Lady reflects that radiance and has become like what she sees.
FIRST . . .
She was the first of “All who received him, who believed in his name”. And so was the first of those to be given “power to become children of God”. (Jn. 1:12). The Gospel vocabulary urging receptivity and belief, has then taken flesh in her person. This is part of the encouraging context she provides for our response to God in faith.
The Evangelist in saying that “We have beheld his glory, glow …” (Jn. 1:14) uses a verb indicating that he is held and enthralled by what he sees of God in Christ. He cannot takes his eyes from him. St. Louis-Marie would ask what this means for the woman who brought him into the world and to maturity, and sees him now in glory? Surely the Christian who would want to make that vision his own in faith – “From his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace” (Jn. 1:16) – and to this end tries to “contemplate God in her company,” cannot but be helped by her radiant being to see what she now sees.
There is, regrettably, much of self in whatever we do. The best of us has only partial vision. Our motives are so mixed. That is why St. Louis- Marie suggests at the peak moments of a Christian life, for example – the reception of Our Lord in Holy Communion; “We will place him in Mary for him to take his delight in her“. (SM. 47). She is now as ever, a complete capacity to receive God in Christ, as she beholds his glow within us. We invite her, therefore, to love and adore him with and within us.
We then echo her Magnificat as receiving Our Lord in wonder, her image comes to mind to help us welcome him.
. . . TO SEE
What is true of peak moments in Christian living becomes for St. Louis-Marie the context for the whole of life. “If we do anything at all it will be in Mary, and in this way Mary will help us to forget self everywhere and in all things”. (SM. 47). ‘Self,’ as ever, is the trouble, and her faithful, fruitful presence can help ease us away from it. The “Spiritual image of Mary
. Oratory … Tower … lamp … sacred place… ,” is then the place within which we try to recollect ourselves for a more mature appreciation of a life hidden with Christ in God. ‘Self’ can lessen its hold as she draws us “To contemplate God in her company.”
John Henry Newman as a tourist was reminded of her “sweet, smiling, open countenance” by what he saw, just as he lived in her “easy, familiar, not rigid” presence. St. Louis-Marie would understand that, as everyday life suggested her image and presence. Christians could be considered blessed if they chose to live open to that same influence, always drawing them to the unseen reality of God in Christ.
FOOTNOTES
I Letter 24/26/8/1846 in The Letters and Diaries of J.H. Newman Vol. Xl. ed. C.S. Dessain, Nelson 1961.
2 Letter 31/12/1846 op.cit.
3 The Secret of Mary (SM), from which all references to St. Louis-Marie’s writings are taken.
