Tuesday, April 25, 2006

de Montfort quotes 3

"She also gives her whole self, and gives it in an unspeakable manner, to him who gives all to her."
-- True Devotion to Mary, p. 91

"If we give to her, we give necessarily to Jesus"
-- True Devotion to Mary, p. 93-94

"If this devotion to our Blessed Lady makes the road to Jesus easier, how is it then that they who follow it are the most despised of men?"
-- T.D.M., p. 97

"We make more progress in a brief period of submission to and dependence on Mary than in whole years of following our own will and of relying upon ourselves"
-- T.D.M., p. 98

"he who wishes to have in himself the operation of the Holy Ghost must have His faithful and inseparable spouse, the divine Mary"
-- T.D.M., p. 105

In speaking of the life of Mother Agnes of Jesus, "a Domincan nun of the convent of Langeac, in Auvergne, who died there in the odor of sanctity in the year 1634," St. Louis de Montfort notes that she taught this devotion to "many persons who made great progress in it - among others, Father Olier, the founder of St. Sulpice, as well as many priests and ecclesiastics of the same seminary." Fr. Olier also founded the Society of St. Sulpice, or the Sulpicians, who run my seminary, St. Mary's in Baltimore, and have since 1791.

And another:
Let me remind you again of the dependence shown by the three divine Persons on our Blessed Lady. Theirs is the example which fully justifies our dependence on her. The Father gave and still gives his Son only through her. He raises children for himself only through her. He dispenses his graces to us only through her. God the Son was prepared for mankind in general by her alone. Mary, in union with the Holy Spirit, still conceives him and brings him forth daily. It is through her alone that the Son distributes his merits and virtues. The Holy Spirit formed Jesus only through her, and he forms the members of the Mystical Body and dispenses his gifts and his favours through her.

With such a compelling example of the three divine Persons before us, we would be extremely perverse to ignore her and not consecrate ourselves to her. Indeed we would be blind if we did not see the need for Mary in approaching God and making our total offering to him
-- T.D.M., p. 89

3 comments:

DP said...

I'm reading True Devotion right now. :-)

Fr. Matthew Hardesty said...

wonderful isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much for posting these quotes. When I first read True Devotion in college it revealed to me the beauty and depth of a genuine devotion to Our Lady that I had never dreamed of before. Usually in my daily life I don't think about it, though, and I need to be reminded and inspired to live more fully conscious of my dependance on Our Lady.