St. Louis de Montfort | AirMaria.com https://dev.airmaria.com Breathe Freely Sat, 02 Mar 2019 16:23:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://airmaria.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/28143228/amicon-r-100x100.png St. Louis de Montfort | AirMaria.com https://dev.airmaria.com 32 32 Let us Journey into Advent with Mary https://dev.airmaria.com/2009/11/29/let-us-journey-into-advent-with-mary/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:01:45 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=8420 Ave Maria Meditations Prayer to Jesus Living in Mary O Jesus living in Mary: Come and live in Thy servants, In the spirit of Thy holiness, In the fullness of Thy power, In...

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Ave Maria Meditations

Prayer to Jesus Living in Mary

Jesus living in Mary

O Jesus living in Mary:

Come and live in Thy servants,

In the spirit of Thy holiness,

In the fullness of Thy power,

In the perfection of Thy ways,

In the truth of Thy virtues,

In the fellowship of Thy mysteries,

Rule Thou over every adverse power,

In Thy Spirit, for the glory of the Father.

COMMENTARY:

The prayer is obviously made up of three parts of unequal length: the first part indicates the person addressed; the second, the object of the prayer; the third, the final aim of the prayer.

1. The Person addressed is JESUS, LIVING IN MARY, that is to say, the Incarnate Word, the God-Man, Who in the oneness of His Person possesses at once the divine and the human natures and Who is the meritorious, the exemplary and the vital cause of our sanctification

We address ourselves to Him as living in Mary. For nine months He dwelt physically in her virginal womb: our prayer does not allude to this indwelling in Mary which ended with Our Savior’s birth. He also lived in Mary sacramentally through Holy Communion, but this sacramental presence came to an end with Mary’s last Communion on earth. He lived. and still lives in her mystically, as the Head of a mys­tical body of which all Christians are indeed members, but Mary the most exalted of all, since she occupies the place of honor in that body . He lives in Mary through His Divine Spirit, that is to say, through the Holy Ghost, Whom He imparts to His Holy Mother in order that this Spirit may produce in her dispositions similar to those which He wrought in His own holy soul. By virtue of the merits and prayers of the Savior, the Holy Ghost comes then to sanctify and glorify Mary, to make her more and more like Jesus until she becomes the most perfect living image of Christ.

Father Olier explains this well:  What Our Lord is to the Church, that He is preeminently to His Holy Mother. Thus He constitutes her interior and divine plenitude of grace, and as He sacrificed Himself more particularly for her than for the whole Church, He imparts to her God’s life more abundantly than to the entire Church. This He does from a sense of gratitude, in return for the life which He received from her ; for just as He promised to render to all His members a hundred­fold for what they give Him here on earth, so He wills to render to His Mother a hundredfold for that human life which He received from her love and devotion. This hundredfold is the Divine Life of infinite value. We must then regard Jesus as Our All, living in the Most Blessed Virgin in the plenitude of Divine Life, of that Life which He received from the Father, and of that other life which He acquired and merited for men through the mediation of His Mother.  It is in her that we must see all the treasures of His riches, the glory of His beauty and the bliss of the Divine Life. There He dwells in all His fullness; there He works with all the power of His Divine;   He is but one heart, one soul, one life with her.

Jesus lives fully in Mary in order to sanctify not only her, but through her the other members of His mystical body. She is, as St. Bernard says, the aqueduct through which all the graces merited by her Son reach us. “He willed us to have all things through Mary.” It is therefore most pleasing to Jesus and most profitable to our soul that we address ourselves to Jesus living in Mary.

2. The object of this prayer is the interior life with all its constituent elements, which is nothing less than a participation in that life which Jesus communicates to His Mother and which we beg Him to deign to communicate to us as well.

A) Since Jesus living in Mary is the source of this life, we humbly beg Him to come and live in us, and we promise Him to submit in all docility to His influence: COME AND LIVE IN THY SERVANTS.

a) He comes to us as He comes to Mary, through His Divine Spirit through habitual grace. Every time sanctifying grace is increased the Spirit of Jesus likewise grows in our soul, and consequently each time we perform a supernatural, meritorious act, this Divine Spirit comes to us and makes our soul still more like the soul of Jesus and that of Mary. What a powerful motive for multiplying and intensifying our meritorious actions by animating them with divine love !

b) He acts in us through actual grace which He merited for us which He imparts to us through His Divine Spirit: “He worketh in both to will and to accomplish.” He becomes the mainspring of interior movements, of our interior dispositions, so much so that acts proceed only from Jesus communicating to us His Own His sentiments, His affections, His desires. Then we can say with St. Paul: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me”.

c) That this be so, we must let ourselves be led by Him as faithful servants and we must cooperate with His grace. Like the humble Virgin we must say in all sincerity: “Behold the servant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” Conscious of our misery and our helplessness, we must obey promptly the least inspirations of His grace. This means for us honorable servitude, for to serve Him is to reign. It means a service of love that subjects us to Him Who is indeed Our Master, but also Our Father, Our Friend and Who commands nothing that is not profitable to our own soul. Let us then open our hearts to Christ Jesus and to His Divine Spirit that He may reign therein as He reigned in the heart of His Blessed Mother!

B) Because Jesus is the source of all holiness, we ask Him to live and to act in us, in order that He may communicate to us His Own sanctity: IN THE SPIRIT OF THY HOLINESS.

There is in Him a twofold holiness: substantial holiness which flows from the hypostatic union, and participated holiness which is nothing else but created grace. It is this latter holiness that we beg Him to communicate to us. It consists first of all in a horror of sin and in the severance from whatever may lead thereto, in a thorough detachment from creatures and from all self-seeking; but it consists also in a participation in the Divine Life; in an intimate union with the Three Divine Persons; in a love for God which controls every other affection; in a word, in positive sanctity.

Since we are unable to acquire such an exalted sanctity through our own efforts, we beg Him to come to us IN THE FULLNESS OF HIS POWER. Nay, since we fear lest we turn traitors to God, we pray with the Church that He “deign to subject to His sway our rebellious faculties”.

It is an efficacious grace therefore that we beg for, which, while it respects our liberty, knows how to touch the secret springs of the will and to procure its free consent; a grace which is not rendered power­less by our instinctive repugnance or our irrational opposition, but which sweetly and firmly works in us to will and to accomplish.

C) Since holiness cannot be attained without the imitation of Our Divine Model, we beg Him to make us walk IN THE PERFECTION OF HIS WAYS, that is to say, to make us able to imitate His conduct, His exterior and interior actions, in all their perfection. I n other words, we ask to become living images of Jesus, other Christs, that like St. Paul we may be able to say to those who would learn of us : “Be ye, followers of me, as I also am of Christ. ” So perfect is this ideal that, of ourselves, we can not realize it. But Jesus becomes our way:” I am the way,” a shining and living way, a moving way, so to speak, which draws us in its wake: ” And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.” We shall willingly allow ourselves to be drawn by Thee, 0 Divine Model, and we shall live to reproduce Thy virtues!

D) Hence we add: IN THE TRUTH OF THY VIRTUES, we ask for real virtues. There are persons who, under a veneer of exterior righteousness, conceal a pagan pride and sensuality. External manners do not constitute holiness. What Jesus comes to bring us therefore are interior virtues, crucifying virtues: humility, poverty, mortification, perfect chastity of mind, heart and body; and unifying virtues: the spirit of faith, of confidence and of  love.. This is what makes the Christian and this is what transforms him into another Christ.

E) Jesus practiced all these virtues especially in His mysteries, and on this account we pray Him to make us partake in the grace of His mysteries: IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THY MYSTERIES.

No doubt, all the principal actions of Our Lord are called mysteries, but more especially those six great mysteries described by Father Olier in his Christ­ian Catechism: the Incarnation, which invites us to put off all self-love in order to consecrate ourselves entirely to the Father in union with Jesus: “Behold I come to do thy will, O God;” the Crucifixion, Death and Burial, which express so many degrees of that total immolation of self by which we crucify our disordered nature and seek to put off and bury our evil inclinations; the Resurrection and the Ascen­sion, which are the symbols of a perfect detachment from creatures and of the altogether heavenly life which we desire to lead in order to reach heaven.

F) We can not assuredly attain such perfection unless Jesus comes to vanquish our powerful enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil: to rule over every adverse power. These three enemies will never cease their bitter onslaughts, nor will they be completely annihilated as long as we live upon this earth. But Jesus, Who triumphed over them, can thwart them and subjugate them by giving efficacious graces wherewith to resist their attacks. It is this for which we humbly pray.

3. Lastly, in order to obtain this grace more readily, proclaim that with Him we have but one end in view, to procure the glory of the Father under the action of the Holy Ghost: BY THY SPIRIT UNTO THE GLORY OF THE FATHER. Since He is come to earth to seek His Father’s glory: “I glorify the ­Father,” we beg Him to fulfill His work in us and to impart to us His own interior holiness, so that with Him and through Him we may be enabled to give glory to that same

Father and that we may have Him glorified by those about us. Then shall we be truly members of His mystical body, true worshippers of God, and He will live and reign in our hearts for the greater glory of the Most Adorable Trinity.

This prayer therefore constitutes a synthesis of the spiritual life and a summary of our Compendium…we cannot but bless and invite our readers to bless with us, that God of love, that loving Father, Who in making us partakers of His own Life, has filled us with all manner of blessings in His Son.

BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO HATH BLESSED US WITH SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN HEAVENLY PLACES, IN CHRIST.

(St. Louis de Montfort)

Jesus in Mary

O Jesu vivens in Maria

Veni et vive in famulis tuis,

In spiritu sanctitatis tuae,

In plenitudine virtutis tuae,

In perfectione viarum tuarum,

In veritate virtutum tuarum,

In communione mysteriorum tuorum;

Dominare omni adversae potestati,

In Spiritu tuo ad gloriam Patris.

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The Totus Tuus of St. Louis Marie de Montfort https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/04/27/the-totus-tuus-of-st-louis-marie-de-montfort/ https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/04/27/the-totus-tuus-of-st-louis-marie-de-montfort/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:00:21 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=11555 Ave Maria Meditations: Totus Tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt, O Virgo, super omnia benedicta. Translates as: I am all yours, and all that is mine is yours, O Virgin, blessed...

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Ave Maria Meditations:

Totus Tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt, O Virgo, super omnia benedicta.

Translates as: I am all yours, and all that is mine is yours, O Virgin, blessed above all.

St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s Prayer to Mary:

Hail Mary, beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father. Hail Mary, admirable Mother of the Son. Hail Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, my Mother, my loving Mistress, my powerful sovereign. Hail, my joy, my glory, my heart and my soul. Thou art all mine by mercy, and I am thine by justice. But I am not yet sufficiently thine. I now give myself wholly to thee without keeping anything back for myself or others. If thou seest anything in me which does not belong to thee, I beseech thee to take it and make thyself the absolute Mistress of all that is mine.

Destroy in me all that may displease God; root it up and bring it to nought. Place and cultivate in me everything that is pleasing to thee. May the light of thy faith dispel the darkness of my mind. May thy profound humility take the place of my pride; may thy sublime contemplation check the distractions of my wandering imagination. May the continuous sight of God fill my memory with His Presence; may the burning love of thy heart inflame the lukewarmness of mine. May thy virtues take the place of my sins; may thy merits be my only adornment in the sight of God and make up for all that is wanting in me. Finally, dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I may have no other spirit but thine to know Jesus, and His Divine Will; that I may have no other soul but thinke to praise and glorify God; that I may have no other heart but thine to love God with a love as pure and ardent as thine.

I do not ask thee for visions, revelations, sensible devotions, or spiritual pleasures. It is thy privilege to see God clearly, it is thy privilege to enjoy heavenly bliss; it is thy privilege to triumph gloriously in heaven at the right hand of thy Son and to hold absolute sway over angels, men, and demons.

It is thy privilege to dispose of all the gifts of God, just as thou willest. Such, O heavenly Mary, the ‘best part’, which the Lord has given thee, and which shall never be taken away from thee–and this thought fills my heart with joy. As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that which was thine, to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures, to suffer joyfully without human consolation, to die continually to myself without respite, and to work zealously and unselfishly for thee until death, as the humblest of thy servants. The only grace I beg thee, for me, is that every moment of the day, and every moment of my life, I may say, “Amen, so be it, to all that thou art doing in heaven. Amen, so be it, to all thou didst do while on earth. Amen, so be it, to all thou art doing in my soul,” so that thou alone mayest fully glorify Jesus in me for time and eternity. Amen.

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Thoughts on our Blessed Lady https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/05/22/thoughts-on-our-blessed-lady/ Sat, 22 May 2010 19:00:24 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=12266 Ave Maria Meditations From True Devotion to Mary: -Jesus gave more glory to God the Father by submission to His Mother during those thirty years than He would have given Him by converting...

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Ave Maria Meditations

From True Devotion to Mary:

-Jesus gave more glory to God the Father by submission to His Mother during those thirty years than He would have given Him by converting the whole world by the working of the most stupendous miracles. Oh, how highly we glorify God when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary after the example of Jesus Christ, our sole Exemplar.

-The Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary His dear and inseparable spouse in any soul, the more active and mightly He becomes in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ..  He has chosen her (Mary) to be ethe dispenser of all…His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass through her virginal hands.

-Our Lord is still, in Heaven,  as much the Son of Mary as He was on earth, and that, consequently, He has retained HIs obedience and submission of the most perfect Child toward the best of mothers.  Mary…asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God.  God has empowered her and commissioned her to fill with saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride.

-In the supernatural and spiritual generation there are are Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother.

-Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest the greatest thing which ever has been or will be: a God-man. And she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will  be at the end of time. When the Holy Ghost has found Mary in a soul, He flies there.

-Mary is the Queen of Heaven and earth by grace as Jesus is King of them by nature.

-(Mary is) especially necessary to the great saints of the latter times.  These great saints, full of grace and zeal…shalle be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady…so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other…They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross,the Crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary in their hearts, and the mortification and modesty of Jesus Christ in their own behavior.

-God has never made and formed but one emnity…between Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil.

-God wishes His holy Mother at present to be more known, more loved, and more honored than she ever has been. It was through Mary that the salvation of the world has begun, and it is through Mary that it must be consummated…in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary has to be made and known by the Holy Ghost, in order that through her, Jesus Christ may be known, loved, and served. Being the way that Jesus Christ came to us the first time,  she will also be the way by which He will come the second time, but not in the same manner.

-He that shall find Mary shall find Life…that is Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.


St. Louis Marie de Montfort

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On the Hail Mary, the Rosary https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/05/28/on-the-hail-mary-the-rosary/ https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/05/28/on-the-hail-mary-the-rosary/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 19:00:15 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=12277 O predestinate souls, slaves of Jesus in Mary, learn that the Hail Mary is the most beautiful of all prayers after the Our Father. It is the most perfect compliment which you can give...

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O predestinate souls, slaves of Jesus in Mary, learn that the Hail Mary is the most beautiful of all prayers after the Our Father. It is the most perfect compliment which you can give to Mary, because it is the compliment which the Most High sent her by an archangel in order to win her heart; and it was so powerful over her heart by the secret charms of which it is so full, that in spite of her profound humility she gave her consent to the Incarnation of the Word. It is by this compliment also that you will infallibly win her heart, if you say it as you ought.

The Hail Mary well said, that is with attention, devotion, and modesty is, according to the saints, the enemy of the devil which puts him to flight, and the hammer which crushes him. It is the sanctification of the soul, the joy of the angels, the melody of the predestinate, the canticle of the New Testament, the pleasure of Mary, and the glory of the most Holy Trinity. The Hail Mary is a heavenly dew which fertilizes the soul. It is the chaste and loving kiss which we give to Mary. It is a vermilion rose which we present to her; a precious pearl we offer her; a chalice of divine ambrosial nectar which we proffer to her. All these are comparisons of the saints.

I pray you urgently, by the love I bear you in Jesus and Mary, not to content yourselves with saying the Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin, but to say five decades, or even, if you have time, fifteen decades of the Rosary every day. At the moment of your death you will bless the day and the hour in which you fol­lowed my advice. Having thus sown in the blessings of Jesus and Mary, you will reap eternal blessings in Heaven. “He who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings.” (2 Cor. 9:6).

St. Louis Marie de Montfort

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The Most Precious Body and Blood of Christ https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/06/05/the-most-precious-body-and-blood-of-christ/ Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:00:20 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=12394 Ave Maria Mediations   My Jesus, I long ardently For you to come to me this day; Without you life is misery. Come to me soon, I pray. Without the fervor that you...

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Ave Maria Mediations

 

My Jesus, I long ardently
For you to come to me this day;
Without you life is misery.
Come to me soon, I pray.


Without the fervor that you bring,
O Love, I languish night and day;
And do you not desire my love?
Inflame my heart, I pray.


Good Shepherd, bear your lost sheep home
Within your arms, when e’er I stray;
From ravening wolves that round me roam
O keep me safe, I pray.


O Bread of Life, for you I sigh,
Give me yourself without delay;
For otherwise my soul must die.
Give me to eat, I pray.


O fount of living waters clear,
How long and weary is the way;
Refresh my soul which thirsts for you.
Give me to drink, I pray.


O loving Lord, my soul is chilled
By icy winds that round me play;
O fire of love, let me be filled
With warmth from you, I pray.


Like the blind man who cried to you:
Have mercy on me, Lord, I say,
O Mary’s son, that I may see;
Increase my faith, I pray.


Lord, I am sick beyond all cure,
But with a word you can display
Your power; without you death is sure.
O heal me, Lord, I pray.


My Lord, I knock upon your door;
Your favors I can ne’er repay,
Yet in my want I beg for more.
Fulfill my needs, I pray.


I am not worthy, Lord, that you
Should come into my house today
As heavenly food; say but the word
And heal my soul, I pray.


Lord, you alone are my true friend,
My treasure which can ne’er decay;
All earthly joys do you transcend.
Do visit me this day

 

St. Louis Marie de Montfort

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Jesus living in Mary https://dev.airmaria.com/2010/07/12/jesus-living-in-mary-2/ Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:00:10 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=13052 Ave Maria Meditations Prayer to Jesus Living in Mary O Jesus living in Mary: Come and live in Thy servants, In the spirit of Thy holiness, In the fullness of Thy power, In...

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Ave Maria Meditations

Prayer to Jesus Living in Mary

Jesus living in Mary

O Jesus living in Mary:

Come and live in Thy servants,

In the spirit of Thy holiness,

In the fullness of Thy power,

In the perfection of Thy ways,

In the truth of Thy virtues,

In the fellowship of Thy mysteries,

Rule Thou over every adverse power,

In Thy Spirit, for the glory of the Father.

+++

COMMENTARY:

The prayer is obviously made up of three parts of unequal length: the first part indicates the person addressed; the second, the object of the prayer; the third, the final aim of the prayer.

1. The Person addressed is JESUS, LIVING IN MARY, that is to say, the Incarnate Word, the God-Man, Who in the oneness of His Person possesses at once the divine and the human natures and Who is the meritorious, the exemplary and the vital cause of our sanctification

We address ourselves to Him as living in Mary. For nine months He dwelt physically in her virginal womb: our prayer does not allude to this indwelling in Mary which ended with Our Savior’s birth. He also lived in Mary sacramentally through Holy Communion, but this sacramental presence came to an end with Mary’s last Communion on earth. He lived. and still lives in her mystically, as the Head of a mys­tical body of which all Christians are indeed members, but Mary the most exalted of all, since she occupies the place of honor in that body . He lives in Mary through His Divine Spirit, that is to say, through the Holy Ghost, Whom He imparts to His Holy Mother in order that this Spirit may produce in her dispositions similar to those which He wrought in His own holy soul. By virtue of the merits and prayers of the Savior, the Holy Ghost comes then to sanctify and glorify Mary, to make her more and more like Jesus until she becomes the most perfect living image of Christ.

Father Olier explains this well:  What Our Lord is to the Church, that He is preeminently to His Holy Mother. Thus He constitutes her interior and divine plenitude of grace, and as He sacrificed Himself more particularly for her than for the whole Church, He imparts to her God’s life more abundantly than to the entire Church. This He does from a sense of gratitude, in return for the life which He received from her ; for just as He promised to render to all His members a hundred­fold for what they give Him here on earth, so He wills to render to His Mother a hundredfold for that human life which He received from her love and devotion. This hundredfold is the Divine Life of infinite value. We must then regard Jesus as Our All, living in the Most Blessed Virgin in the plenitude of Divine Life, of that Life which He received from the Father, and of that other life which He acquired and merited for men through the mediation of His Mother.  It is in her that we must see all the treasures of His riches, the glory of His beauty and the bliss of the Divine Life. There He dwells in all His fullness; there He works with all the power of His Divine;   He is but one heart, one soul, one life with her.

Jesus lives fully in Mary in order to sanctify not only her, but through her the other members of His mystical body. She is, as St. Bernard says, the aqueduct through which all the graces merited by her Son reach us. “He willed us to have all things through Mary.” It is therefore most pleasing to Jesus and most profitable to our soul that we address ourselves to Jesus living in Mary.

2. The object of this prayer is the interior life with all its constituent elements, which is nothing less than a participation in that life which Jesus communicates to His Mother and which we beg Him to deign to communicate to us as well.

A) Since Jesus living in Mary is the source of this life, we humbly beg Him to come and live in us, and we promise Him to submit in all docility to His influence: COME AND LIVE IN THY SERVANTS.

a) He comes to us as He comes to Mary, through His Divine Spirit through habitual grace. Every time sanctifying grace is increased the Spirit of Jesus likewise grows in our soul, and consequently each time we perform a supernatural, meritorious act, this Divine Spirit comes to us and makes our soul still more like the soul of Jesus and that of Mary. What a powerful motive for multiplying and intensifying our meritorious actions by animating them with divine love !

b) He acts in us through actual grace which He merited for us which He imparts to us through His Divine Spirit: “He worketh in both to will and to accomplish.” He becomes the mainspring of interior movements, of our interior dispositions, so much so that acts proceed only from Jesus communicating to us His Own His sentiments, His affections, His desires. Then we can say with St. Paul: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me”.

c) That this be so, we must let ourselves be led by Him as faithful servants and we must cooperate with His grace. Like the humble Virgin we must say in all sincerity: “Behold the servant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” Conscious of our misery and our helplessness, we must obey promptly the least inspirations of His grace. This means for us honorable servitude, for to serve Him is to reign. It means a service of love that subjects us to Him Who is indeed Our Master, but also Our Father, Our Friend and Who commands nothing that is not profitable to our own soul. Let us then open our hearts to Christ Jesus and to His Divine Spirit that He may reign therein as He reigned in the heart of His Blessed Mother!

B) Because Jesus is the source of all holiness, we ask Him to live and to act in us, in order that He may communicate to us His Own sanctity: IN THE SPIRIT OF THY HOLINESS.

There is in Him a twofold holiness: substantial holiness which flows from the hypostatic union, and participated holiness which is nothing else but created grace. It is this latter holiness that we beg Him to communicate to us. It consists first of all in a horror of sin and in the severance from whatever may lead thereto, in a thorough detachment from creatures and from all self-seeking; but it consists also in a participation in the Divine Life; in an intimate union with the Three Divine Persons; in a love for God which controls every other affection; in a word, in positive sanctity.

Since we are unable to acquire such an exalted sanctity through our own efforts, we beg Him to come to us IN THE FULLNESS OF HIS POWER. Nay, since we fear lest we turn traitors to God, we pray with the Church that He “deign to subject to His sway our rebellious faculties”.

It is an efficacious grace therefore that we beg for, which, while it respects our liberty, knows how to touch the secret springs of the will and to procure its free consent; a grace which is not rendered power­less by our instinctive repugnance or our irrational opposition, but which sweetly and firmly works in us to will and to accomplish.

C) Since holiness cannot be attained without the imitation of Our Divine Model, we beg Him to make us walk IN THE PERFECTION OF HIS WAYS, that is to say, to make us able to imitate His conduct, His exterior and interior actions, in all their perfection. I n other words, we ask to become living images of Jesus, other Christs, that like St. Paul we may be able to say to those who would learn of us : “Be ye, followers of me, as I also am of Christ. ” So perfect is this ideal that, of ourselves, we can not realize it. But Jesus becomes our way:” I am the way,” a shining and living way, a moving way, so to speak, which draws us in its wake: ” And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.” We shall willingly allow ourselves to be drawn by Thee, 0 Divine Model, and we shall live to reproduce Thy virtues!

D) Hence we add: IN THE TRUTH OF THY VIRTUES, we ask for real virtues. There are persons who, under a veneer of exterior righteousness, conceal a pagan pride and sensuality. External manners do not constitute holiness. What Jesus comes to bring us therefore are interior virtues, crucifying virtues: humility, poverty, mortification, perfect chastity of mind, heart and body; and unifying virtues: the spirit of faith, of confidence and of  love.. This is what makes the Christian and this is what transforms him into another Christ.

E) Jesus practiced all these virtues especially in His mysteries, and on this account we pray Him to make us partake in the grace of His mysteries: IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THY MYSTERIES.

No doubt, all the principal actions of Our Lord are called mysteries, but more especially those six great mysteries described by Father Olier in his Christ­ian Catechism: the Incarnation, which invites us to put off all self-love in order to consecrate ourselves entirely to the Father in union with Jesus: “Behold I come to do thy will, O God;” the Crucifixion, Death and Burial, which express so many degrees of that total immolation of self by which we crucify our disordered nature and seek to put off and bury our evil inclinations; the Resurrection and the Ascen­sion, which are the symbols of a perfect detachment from creatures and of the altogether heavenly life which we desire to lead in order to reach heaven.

F) We can not assuredly attain such perfection unless Jesus comes to vanquish our powerful enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil: to rule over every adverse power. These three enemies will never cease their bitter onslaughts, nor will they be completely annihilated as long as we live upon this earth. But Jesus, Who triumphed over them, can thwart them and subjugate them by giving efficacious graces wherewith to resist their attacks. It is this for which we humbly pray.

3. Lastly, in order to obtain this grace more readily, proclaim that with Him we have but one end in view, to procure the glory of the Father under the action of the Holy Ghost: BY THY SPIRIT UNTO THE GLORY OF THE FATHER. Since He is come to earth to seek His Father’s glory: “I glorify the ­Father,” we beg Him to fulfill His work in us and to impart to us His own interior holiness, so that with Him and through Him we may be enabled to give glory to that same

Father and that we may have Him glorified by those about us. Then shall we be truly members of His mystical body, true worshippers of God, and He will live and reign in our hearts for the greater glory of the Most Adorable Trinity.

This prayer therefore constitutes a synthesis of the spiritual life and a summary of our Compendium…we cannot but bless and invite our readers to bless with us, that God of love, that loving Father, Who in making us partakers of His own Life, has filled us with all manner of blessings in His Son.

BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO HATH BLESSED US WITH SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN HEAVENLY PLACES, IN CHRIST.

(St. Louis de Montfort)

Jesus in Mary

O Jesu vivens in Maria

Veni et vive in famulis tuis,

In spiritu sanctitatis tuae,

In plenitudine virtutis tuae,

In perfectione viarum tuarum,

In veritate virtutum tuarum,

In communione mysteriorum tuorum;

Dominare omni adversae potestati,

In Spiritu tuo ad gloriam Patris.

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St. Louis de Montfort https://dev.airmaria.com/2012/04/28/st-louis-de-montfort/ https://dev.airmaria.com/2012/04/28/st-louis-de-montfort/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:00:42 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=27763 Ave Maria Meditations “I am all thine, and all that I have is thine, O most loving Jesus, through Mary Thy most holy and Immaculate Mother. 23. God the Father gathered all the...

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Ave Maria Meditations

“I am all thine, and all that I have is thine, O most loving Jesus, through Mary Thy most holy and Immaculate Mother.

23. God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas (maria). He gathered all his graces together and called them Mary (Maria). The great God has a treasury or storehouse full of riches in which he has enclosed all that is beautiful, resplendent, rare, and precious, even his own Son. This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the saints call the “treasury of the Lord”. From her fullness all men are made rich.

24. God the Son imparted to his mother all that he gained by his life and death, namely, his infinite merits and his eminent virtues. He made her the treasurer of all his Father had given him as heritage. Through her he applies his merits to his members and through her he transmits his virtues and distributes his graces. She is his mystical channel, his aqueduct, through which he causes his mercies to flow gently and abundantly.

25. God the Holy Spirit entrusted his wondrous gifts to Mary, his faithful spouse, and chose her as the dispenser of all he possesses, so that she distributes all his gifts and graces to whom she wills, as much as she wills, how she wills and when she wills. No heavenly gift is given to men which does not pass through her virginal hands. Such indeed is the will of God, who has decreed that we should have all things through Mary, so that, making herself poor and lowly,, and hiding herself in the depths of nothingness during her whole life, she might be enriched, exalted and honored by almighty God. Such are the views of the Church and the early Fathers.

28. Mary has authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven. As a reward for her great humility, God gave her the power and the mission of assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels.

35. When Mary has taken root in a soul she produces in it wonders of grace which only she can produce; for she alone is the fruitful virgin who never had and never will have her equal in purity and fruitfulness. Together with the Holy Spirit Mary produced the greatest thing that ever was or ever will be: a God-man. She will consequently produce the marvels which will be seen in the latter times. The formation and the education of the great saints who will come at the end of the world are reserved to her, for only this singular and wondrous virgin can produce in union with the Holy Spirit singular and wondrous things.

36. When the Holy Spirit, her spouse, finds Mary in a soul, he hastens there and enters fully into it. He gives himself generously to that soul according to the place it has given to his spouse. One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not work striking wonders in souls is that he fails to find in them a sufficiently close union with his faithful and inseparable spouse. I say “inseparable spouse”, for from the moment the substantial love of the Father and the Son espoused Mary to form Jesus, the head of the elect, and Jesus in the elect, he has never disowned her, for she has always been faithful and fruitful. who fell away through pride.

47. I said that this will happen especially towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs. This has been revealed to a holy soul whose life has been written by M. de Renty.

48. These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her food, guided by her spirit, supported by her arm, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Fathers of the Church the Temple of Solomon and the City of God . By word and example they will draw all men to a true devotion to her and though this will make many enemies, it will also bring about many victories and much glory to God alone.

52. God has established only one enmity – but it is an irreconcilable one – which will last and even go on increasing to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers of Lucifer.

from “True Devotion to Mary” by St. Louis de Montfort

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The Mother of my Lord https://dev.airmaria.com/2012/05/31/the-mother-of-my-lord/ https://dev.airmaria.com/2012/05/31/the-mother-of-my-lord/#comments Thu, 31 May 2012 16:00:52 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=27982 Ave Maria Meditations HAIL MARY, beloved Daughter of the eternal Father. Hail Mary, wonderful Mother of the Son. Hail Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, my dear Mother, my loving...

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Ave Maria Meditations

HAIL MARY, beloved Daughter of the eternal Father. Hail Mary, wonderful Mother of the Son. Hail Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, my dear Mother, my loving Lady, my powerful Queen. You are all mine through your mercy, and I am all yours.

Take away from me all that may be displeasing to God. Cultivate in me everything that is pleas­ing to you. May the light of your faith dispel the dark­ness of my mind, your deep humility take the place of my pride; your continual sight of God fill my memory with his presence; the fire of the charity of your heart inflame the lukewarmness of my own heart; your virtues take the place of my sins; your merits be my enrichment and make up for all that is want­ing in me before God. 

My beloved Mother, grant that I may have no other spirit but your spirit, to know Jesus Christ and His divine will and to praise and glorify the Lord; that I may love God with burning love like yours.

+St. Louis de Montfort

 

MAGNIFICAT anima mea Dominum: et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo, salutari meo. Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: et sanctum nomen eius. Et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies timentibus eum. Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo: dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles. Esurientes implevit bonis: et divites dimisit inanes. Suscepit Israel, puerum suum, recordatus misericordiae suae. Sicut locuts est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in saecula. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

 

 

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Looking to the Month of the Rosary, a review on Marian Consecration https://dev.airmaria.com/2012/09/28/looking-to-the-month-of-the-rosary-a-review-on-marian-consecration/ https://dev.airmaria.com/2012/09/28/looking-to-the-month-of-the-rosary-a-review-on-marian-consecration/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:00:20 +0000 http://airmaria.com/?p=30096 Ave Maria Meditations St. Louis de Montfort writes about Marian consecration in “The Secret of Mary” The interior constituents of this consecration and its spirit 43. I have already said that this devotion...

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Ave Maria Meditations

St. Louis de Montfort writes about Marian consecration in “The Secret of Mary”

The interior constituents of this consecration and its spirit

43. I have already said that this devotion consists in performing all our actions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary.

44. It is not enough to give ourselves just once as a slave to Jesus through Mary; nor is it enough to renew that consecration once a month or once a week. That alone would make it just a passing devotion and would not raise the soul to the level of holiness which it is capable of reaching. It is easy to enroll in a confraternity; easy to undertake this devotion, and say every day the few vocal prayers prescribed. The chief difficulty is to enter into its spirit, which requires an interior dependence on Mary, and effectively becoming her slave and the slave of Jesus through her. I have met many people who with admirable zeal have set about practising exteriorly this holy slavery of Jesus and Mary, but I have met only a few who have caught its interior spirit, and fewer still who have persevered in it.

Act with Mary

45. 1. The essential practice of this devotion is to perform all our actions with Mary. This means that we must take her as the accomplished model for all we have to do.

46. Before undertaking anything, we must forget self and abandon our own views. We must consider ourselves as a mere nothing before God, as being personally incapable of doing anything supernaturally worthwhile or anything conducive to our salvation. We must have habitual recourse to our Lady, becoming one with her and adopting her intentions, even though they are unknown to us. Through Mary we must adopt the intentions of Jesus. In other words, we must become an instrument in Mary’s hands for her to act in us and do with us what she pleases, for the greater glory of her Son; and through Jesus for the greater glory of the Father. In this way , we pursue our interior life and make spiritual progress only in dependence on Mary.

Act in Mary

47. 2. We must always act in Mary, that is to say, we must gradually acquire the habit of recollecting ourselves interiorly and so form within us an idea or a spiritual image of Mary. She must become, as it were, an Oratory for the soul where we offer up our prayers to God without fear of being ignored. She will be as a Tower of David for us where we can seek safety from all our enemies. She will be a burning lamp lighting up our inmost soul and inflaming us with love for God. She will be a sacred place of repose where we can contemplate God in her company. Finally Mary will be the only means we will use in going to God, and she will become our intercessor for everything we need. When we pray we will pray in Mary. When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion we will place him in Mary for him to take his delight in her. 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.

Act through Mary

48. 3. We must never go to our Lord except through Mary, using her intercession and good standing with him. We must never be without her when praying to Jesus.

Act for Mary

49. 4. We must perform all our actions for Mary, which means that as slaves of this noble Queen we will work only for her, promoting her interests and her high renown, and making this the first aim in all our acts, while the glory of God will always be our final end. In everything we must renounce self- love because more often than not, without our being aware of it, selfishness sets itself up as the end of all we work for. We should often repeat from the depths of our heart: “Dear Mother, it is to please you that I go here or there, that I do this or that, that I suffer this pain or this injury.”

50. Beware, chosen soul, of thinking that it is more perfect to direct your work and intention straight to Jesus or straight to God. Without Mary, your work and your intention will be of little value. But if you go to God through Mary, your work will become Mary’s work, and consequently will be most noble and most worthy of God.

51. Again, beware of doing violence to yourself, endeavouring to experience pleasure in your prayers and good deeds. Pray and act always with something of that pure faith which Mary showed when on earth, and which she will share with you as time goes on. Poor little slave, let your sovereign Queen enjoy the clear sight of God, the raptures, delights, satisfactions and riches of heaven. Content yourself with a pure faith, which is accompanied by repugnance, distractions, weariness and dryness. Let your prayer be: “To whatever Mary my Queen does in heaven, I say Amen, so be it.” We cannot do better than this for the time being.

52. Should you not savour immediately the sweet presence of the Blessed Virgin within you, take great care not to torment yourself. For this is a grace not given to everyone, and even when God in his great mercy favours a soul with this grace, it remains none the less very easy to lose it, except when the soul has become permanently aware of it through the habit of recollection. But should this misfortune happen to you, go back calmly to your sovereign Queen and make amends to her.

[4. The effects that this devotion produces in a faithful soul]

53 Experience will teach you much more about this devotion than I can tell you, but, if you remain faithful to the little I have taught you, you will acquire a great richness of grace that will surprise you and fill you with delight.

54. Let us set to work, then, dear soul, through perseverance in the living of this devotion, in order that Mary’s soul may glorify the Lord in us and her spirit be within us to rejoice in God her Saviour. Let us not think that there was more glory and happiness in dwelling in Abraham’s bosom – which is another name for Paradise – than in dwelling in the bosom of Mary where God has set up his throne.
(Abbot Guerric)

55. This devotion faithfully practised produces countless happy effects in the soul. The most important of them is that it establishes, even here on earth, Mary’s life in the soul, so that it is no longer the soul that lives, but Mary who lives in it. In a manner of speaking, Mary’s soul becomes identified with the soul of her servant. Indeed when by an unspeakable but real grace Mary most holy becomes Queen of a soul, she works untold wonders in it. She is a great wonder-worker especially in the interior of souls.

From St. Louis Marie de Montfort: The Secret of Mary

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Apr 28 – Homily – Fr Joachim: St. Louis de Montfort https://dev.airmaria.com/2014/04/28/apr-28-homily-fr-joachim-st-louis-de-montfort/ Mon, 28 Apr 2014 13:27:12 +0000 http://airmaria.com/2014/04/28/apr-28-homily-fr-joachim-st-louis-de-montfort/ Homily #140428n ( 07min) Play – Father gives us an overview of St. Louis de Montfort’s life and work and shares with us a quote from St. Louis’ Secret of Mary: As Mary...

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Homily #140428n ( 07min) Play – Father gives us an overview of St. Louis de Montfort’s life and work and shares with us a quote from St. Louis’ Secret of Mary:

As Mary is everywhere the fruitful Virgin, she produces in the depths of the soul where she dwells a purity of heart and body, a singleness of intention and purpose, and a fruitfulness in good works. Do not think, dear soul, that Mary, the most faithful of all God’s creatures, who went as far as to give birth to a God-man, remains idle in a docile soul. She causes Jesus to live continuously in that soul and that soul to live in continuous union with Jesus. (56)

Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Louis Marie de Montfort – Opt Mem – Form: OF
Readings: Monday 2nd Week of Easter
1st: act 4:23-31
Resp: psa 2:1-3, 4-6, 7-9
Gsp: joh 3:1-8

Audio (MP3)

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