A Saint For Our Times: St. Louis de Montfort: Part II

Truly A Saint For Our Times

The Spirit of Montfort is evident in what has become the “Pontchateau Affair”.

Having preached a mission in Pontchateau, the missionary fulfilled a dream. With thousands of helpers, he actually built a hill and created a life-size Calvary.  It was to be a permanent site of pilgrimage. The task took well over a year.

Only a few days before the scheduled blessing of the shrine, word was received from the bishop.  The Calvary was not to be blessed but destroyed. Montfort rushed on foot to the bishop’s residence to seek an explanation. Nothing could be done; his detractors had won over the bishop. The order, so it has been said, had come from the highest officials of the court of Paris. They had been told that the missionary was to use the hill of Pontchateau to signal the enemy, the British! Montfort’s response to the thousands awaiting the blessing was a simple statement. “We had hoped to build a Calvary here; let us build it in our hearts”. Saint Louis-Marie could accept this peacefully as part of the mysterious and difficult ways of a loving Divine Providence.

A True Mystic

Saint Louis de Montfort had become a true mystic. He was subtle clay in the Potter’s hands. He had become an active and responsible living “Yes” – like Mary – to the Holy Spirit so that he could be transformed by the Spirit into the image of the Son. Worn out by his apostolate, weakened by his life of poverty and the attempts on his life, the Father from Montfort collapsed while preaching a mission at the village of St. Laurent-sur-Sevre.  The theme of his final sermon exemplifies his life: the gentleness of Jesus, the Incarnate Wisdom.

He died on April 28, 1716, a few months after his forty-third birthday. Some years before, he had written to the first Daughters of Wisdom: “If we do not risk anything for God, we will never do anything great for Him”. Montfort joyfully risked everything to live and proclaim the Gospel. His boldness, his creativity, his lively faith, his utter simplicity of life, his identification with the poor and the oppressed, make him a model for Christians of all times.

A Model for Christians of All Times

It is important to note that Saint Louis-Marie’s sixteen years of priesthood comprise many months of solitude, perhaps as many as a total of four years.  At the cave of Mervent amidst the beauty of the forest, at the hermitage of Saint Lazarus near the village of Montfort, at the hermitage of Saint Eloi in La Rochelle, at Mont Saint-Michel, at various houses of the Jesuits, the Saint found the prayerful solitude needed to become more and more the Spirit-filled instrument of the Gospel.

We must also take into account the months the missionary spent walking – at least several thousand miles – when his mind was turned to his Loving Father.  As he travelled from one town to the next, he joyfully sang some of his own numerous hymns of praise io God, taking time to carve small statues and crucifixes, many of which can still be seen in parishes and religious houses of western France.

Religious Founder . . .

Three congregations trace their foundation to Saint Louis de Montfort. The first, was the Daughters of Wisdom. These daughters live out Montfort’s love for the poor by their apostolate of teaching and serving the-sick. Montfort founded them to be in the midst of the people of the world. They are a living gospel of the love of Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. Their life of contemplative praise of Jesus-Wisdom, the Incarnate Son of Mary, blossoms forth into an apostolate of loving identification with the poor/ the oppressed, whether it be among the peoples of the third world or at the cities and villages of developed countries.

The missionary also yearned ardently for a company of itinerant preachers. They are enflamed by the Holy Spirit; totally trusting in Divine Providence. They are one with Mary in her loving render to God. Through this company, Montfort firmly believed, the renewal of the Church will be brought about.  This congregation of priests and brothers was given the name “The Company of Mary”. Like Mary they are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  The congregation is popularly known as the Montfort Missionaries.  This missionary company is now spread throughout the world, proclaiming through their various apostolates the Reign of Jesus through Mary.

. . . of Three Congregations

At times the missionary would place some of the brothers of his small community in charge of teaching catechism to the poor. This group developed into the third community which recognizes Montfort as its founder. They are the teaching order of the Brothers of Saint Gabriel, also called the Montfort Brothers.  Living the charism of Saint Louis de Montfort, the Brothers of Saint Gabriel teach the good news of Jesus and Mary throughout the world.

More and more lay-persons affiliate with the Montfort Family by sharing in its deep spirituality. Some become closely associated with the life and apostolate of its members.

Saint Louis de Montfort typifies the strength of total surrender to the power of the Spirit.  Empty of self, he became a dynamo of the Power and Wisdom of the Father. In everything, he breathed deeply of the atmosphere of Mary. He did so that he could more intimately be-one with Jesus, who is forever the fruit of her womb.

Overview of the Spirituality . . .

Many sources contributed to Montfort’s experience of the Incarnate Wisdom of the Father, Jesus the Lord. His family background, his schooling, his missionary experience; all play a major role in his understanding and expression of the faith. Moreover, he absorbed freely the spirit of the writings and teachings of Jesuits; Dominicans, Sulpicians, Oratorians and other communities of men. He had close ties with the Visitation Order, the Benedictine Nuns, the Blessed Sacrament Nuns and with many others. Montfort’s spirituality is, therefore, eclectic.  Yet from all these varied sources, he produces a creative synthesis which has attracted many of his own day and seems to be more vibrant now than ever.

But from one point of view, it is perhaps erroneous to speak of a “Montfortian spirituality”.  For if the term, spirituality is limited to “a particular emphasis on the Gospel message’, then Saint Louis de Montfort cannot be called the founder of a school of spirituality. Although springing most directly from the French school, Montfort’s principal thrust is so basic so foundational that it cannot be called a “particular” stress of the Good News. The saint calls for nothing more or less than a lived-out recognition of our baptism into Christ, the Eternal Wisdom of the Father, so that we may live for God Alone.  What could be more basic? What could be more evangelical? Rather than a ‘”particular” spirituality, it penetrates and strengthens all spiritualities.

. . . of Saint Louis Marie

Since it is through Mary’s loving consent, requested by the Trinity, that the Word becomes flesh, our lived-out baptism must, according to Montfort, recognize the influence of her eternal “Yes” in our name. Moreover, since we all belong to Christ Jesus through baptism, we should, according to the saint, willingly and joyfully, formally surrender all we are and have to the Eternal Wisdom for the greater glory of God, for our more intense sanctification and also for each other. (Montfort presupposes what we would term today the ‘ecclesial’ dimension o! baptism).

All of this is comprised in what the saint calls “consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom” which he equates with “nothing else than a perfect renewal of the vows of baptism”. (TD #162).  It is the formal, loving, lived. out acceptance of our oneness in Christ which is qualified by Mary’s eternal “Fiat” in the name of all creation.  Montfort calls us to be who we truly are: the loving slaves (a term to be taken solely in its scriptural sense) of Jesus in Mary.

(See Part III and the Conclusion in a Future Publication)