Mary’s Company of Mary: Part III
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Montfort’s Company of Mary
The present ministry of the Montfort Missionaries is imbued with a renewed living of the charism of the founder, as the Second Vatican Council directed for all religious communities.
The lived-out renewal of the vows of our baptism into Christ Jesus is always the goal of the Montfort Missionary. Fidelity to the legacy of Montfort also demands that special emphasis be placed on preaching authentic Church renewal, always including a correct understanding of Mary’s role in salvation history. Preferential option for the poor and dependence on Divine Providence, two special characteristics of the saint’s own life and heritage, imbue the spirit of inner-city ministry, working with runaways, conducting parish and diocesan renewals, preaching retreats, leading workshops and classes on the renewal of the faith, staffing Marian pilgrimage centers, serving as chaplains to the sick- poor, forming lay apostles in the spirit of Montfort, and as commissioned by the Holy See, guarding and spreading the precious heritage of the spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort by all modern means of communication from the written word to telecomputing.
In addition to the variety of missionary work at home, American Montforts are found in the mission fields of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. As God raises up additional Montforts, the specific missionary spirit of Saint Louis de Montfort, flowing from his particular spirituality, will find new and contemporary expressions. As their founder renewed and strengthened the Church in Western France by his constant missionary endeavors, so too the American Montforts are determined to face the serious challenge of accomplishing the same goals both in the States and abroad.
It is incredible that Montfort’s company of missionaries has survived through such a meager beginning and stormy history. But the Saint’s inspiration, his specific stress on the Gospel has – by the grace of God continued to compel others to follow his vision of the missionary apostolate.
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Montforts World-Wide . . .
The American Montforts form part of a world-wide, close-knit family, found in approximately thirty countries. The community is especially thriving in many of the third world countries where the spirit of Saint Louis de Montfort has received an enthusiastic welcome. The missionaries still work as a “small and poor company” and a warm brotherly love is an essential element of their missionary life; they are primarily witnesses to one another of Christ’s Love. Although the Motherhouse remains at St. Laurent close to the tomb of the founder, the central headquarters or Generalate is located in Rome, Italy. The dream of Saint Louis de Montfort has become a world- wide reality!
The Montfort Missionaries accept into their family men who are called to live in community the spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort. The common family spirit is expressed in a variety of creative missionary apostolates, faithful to the founder’s vision. Like Father de Montfort who received the commission from the Holy Father to proclaim everywhere the renewal of our baptism into Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, the missionaries strive to fulfill that mandate in today’s world.
Consecration: The Perfect Renewal of the Vows of Baptism
The total consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, Christ Jesus, through the hands of Mary – which Saint Louis de Montfort equates with the perfect renewal of the vows of baptism – summarizes both the life and apostolate of the community. In every aspect of their apostolic life, the missionaries strive to imitate and complete in the Body of Christ the evangelical total surrender of Mary, the great Yes to our Loving God spoken by the Mother of the Lord and Mother of the Church. In this way they become the fulfillment of Saint Louis de Montfort’s dream of a missionary community which would be a “body-guard of hand-picked men to protect God’s House . . . ”. No wonder that Montfort’s battle-cry and the one he gave his religious communities was the simple, yet powerful, God Alone!
It is incredible that Montfort’s company of missionaries has survived through such a meager beginning and stormy history. But the Saint’s inspiration, his specific stress on the Gospel has – by the grace of God continued to compel others to follow his vision of the missionary apostolate. The Montfort Missionaries have labored joyfully since their founder’s time to implement the victory won by the triumphant Cross of Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. They still seek good and willing men – ready to surrender all for the Gospel’s sake – to become Missionaries of the Company Mary – Missionaries of THE Missionary, Jesus the Lord.
