The Marvelous Effects of True Devotion

The Marvelous Effects of True Devotion

We  often hear it said nowadays that we are living in the “me generation,” . . .

. . . that this is an age when everyone is concerned with the ultimate question: “What do I get out of it?”

It could very well be that the times we are living in are characterized by an all-pervasive selfishness. But one thing we have noticed, from our own small experience. Quite a few people, old and young alike, who have given up their faith usually justify themselves by saying: “What’s in it for me? I don’t get anything out of going to church anymore.”

If they are honest enough, they will admit that there was a time when religion meant something to them. They recall, with affection, the day of their First Communion, the afternoon when the bishop arrived for their Confirmation, and – here’s where it really gets nostalgic – the beautiful church wedding they had. But they will tell you, that’s all in the past.

Religion has nothing more to offer. The rules are too strict. And besides, the Church is out-of-date and has little appeal to the grown- up person of this century.

Well, maybe it is true that we are living in an age of self- centeredness. But it is also true that there is something to be said for what the politicians used to call “enlightened self-interest”. For the Good Lord did, after all, give each one of us an instinct for self- survival and self-preservation, and we obviously cannot live without thinking, at least once in a while, of “What’s in it for me”? This is a perfectly good instinct, provided we keep it in balance. The Lord did tell us: “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.”

What Does True Devotion Have to Offer to Today’s Catholic?

That is why St. Louis de Montfort, experienced missionary that he was, understood that sooner or later, he would have to face the question. “What does your particular form of devotion to the Blessed Virgin have to offer to the every-day Catholic who is just trying to make ends meet?”

He assumed that it was a perfectly legitimate and honest question. He had just explained in his Treatise the many excellent and ideal motives for giving oneself totally to Jesus through Mary. All of them stressing the notion of self-giving to Christ through our Blessed Lady. But he knew perfectly well, being an astute theologian, that whenever we give anything to God it is returned to us one hundredfold. And in his section entitled, “Wonderful Effects of this Devotion,” he points out what this hundredfold consists of.

Effects of This Devotion

The first effect is a bit of a shock, therapeutic of course, necessary no doubt, but nevertheless a shock to our complacency. The first result we get from this devotion, he tells us, is a knowledge of our unworthiness. “By the light which the Holy Spirit will give you,” he writes, “through Mary, His faithful spouse, you will perceive the evil inclinations of your fallen nature and how incapable you are of any good apart from that which God produces in you as Author of grace and nature.”

But once we realize the truth of our own unworthiness, once we learn to approach Christ and Our Lady with a humble and contrite heart, then the panorama opens before us. We receive a share of Mary’s faith, the trust, the belief, the confidence in God that entitles us to call her The Woman of Faith.

You Will Act Out Of Pure Love For God

And from that faith of hers, a faith which Montfort says was “stronger than that of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints,” will spring what he calls the gift of pure love. “The Mother of fair love,” he writes, “will rid your heart of all scruples and inordinate fear … You will then cease to act, as you did before, out of fear of God who is love, but rather out of pure love. You will look upon Him as a loving Father and endeavor to please Him at all times. And, you will speak trustfully to Him as a child does to its father . . .”

Supported then by a share in Our Lady’s faith and with the assurance that God is truly our Father, you will find yourself filled “with unbounded confidence in God” and in our Blessed Mother. Your prayers will be said with a great deal more assurance now that you know you are praying with her faith and not only with yours.

The Holy Spirit Will Come Down Into Your Soul

Then, says Montfort, “her spirit will take the place of yours to rejoice in God, her Savior … The Holy Spirit, finding His spouse again in souls, will come down into them with great power. He will fill them with His gifts, especially wisdom, by which they will produce wonders of grace.”

The fruit of the union of the Holy Spirit and our Blessed Lady is always the same. Their first union, at the time of the Annunciation, produced the Incarnation of the Son of God, our Redeemer. And this union continues until the end of time, producing Christ within our souls and minds and hearts.

And all of this brings about the one supreme effect that every Christian strives for: “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: You share in the high quality of her intentions which are so pure that she gave more glory to God by the smallest of her actions … than did St. Lawrence suffering his cruel martyrdom … and even more than all the saints together in all their most heroic deeds.”

St. Louis de Montfort claims that his is not the most demanding of devotions. There are others that call for much more sacrifice on our part. But he does maintain that, more than other devotions, this consecration of his produces truly marvelous and wonderful effects.