TRUE DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
By St. Louis-Marie de Montfort
If devotion to the Blessed Virgin is necessary for all
men simply to work out their salvation, it is even more necessary for those who
are called to a special perfection. I do not believe that anyone can acquire
intimate union with our Lord and perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without a
very close union with the most Blessed Virgin and an absolute dependence on her
support.
Mary’s part in the latter times
The salvation of the world began through Mary and
through her it must be accomplished. Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming
of Jesus Christ so that men, as yet insufficiently instructed and enlightened
concerning the person of her Son, might not wander from the truth by becoming
too strongly attached to her. This would apparently have happened if she had
been known, on account of the wondrous charms with which Almighty God had
endowed even her outward appearance. So true is this that St. Denis the
Areopagite tells us in his writings that when he saw her he would have taken
her for a goddess, because of her incomparable beauty, had not his
well-grounded faith taught him otherwise. But in the second coming of Jesus
Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus
may be known, loved and served through her. The reasons which moved the Holy
Spirit to hide his spouse during her life and to reveal but very little of her
since the first preaching of the gospel exist no longer.
Day 9 of 33
Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis: Book
1, Chapter 13, cont.
Fire tries iron, and temptation a just man. We often
know not what we are able to do, but temptations discover what we are. Still,
we must watch, especially in the beginning of temptation; for then the enemy is
more easily overcome, if he be not suffered to enter the door of the mind, but
is withstood upon the threshold the very moment he knocks. Whence a certain one
has said "Resist beginnings; all too late the cure." When ills have
gathered strength, by long delay, first there comes from the mind a simple
thought; then a strong imagination, afterwards delight, and the evil motion and
consent and so, little by little the fiend does gain entrance, when he is not
resisted in the beginning. The longer anyone has been slothful in resisting, so
much the weaker he becomes, daily in himself, and the enemy, so much the
stronger in him. Some suffer grievous temptations in the beginning of their
conversion, others in the end and others are troubled nearly their whole life.
Some are very lightly tempted, according to the wisdom and the equity of the
ordinance of God who weighs man's condition and merits, and preordaineth all
things for the salvation of His elect. We must not, therefore, despair when we
are tempted, but the more fervently pray to God to help us in every
tribulation: Who, of a truth, according to the sayings of St. Paul, will make
such issue with the temptation, that we are able to sustain it.
Let us then humble our souls under the hand of God in
every temptation and tribulation, for the humble in spirit, He will save and
exalt. In temptation and tribulations, it is proved what progress man has made;
and there also is great merit, and virtue is made more manifest.
No comments:
Post a Comment