St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716) was a French Roman Catholic priest, confessor and steadfast preacher of devotion to the Blessed Mother. Many of his writings can be found in the book “God Alone: The Collected Writings of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort.”
That title, “God Alone,” reflects one of the great tragedies of our time, namely that the human family is forgetting God. Ultimately, this is what lies at the heart of today’s many social ills. I believe there are two great antidotes to this cultural tragedy: reception and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and devotion to our Blessed Mother. These devotions not only benefit the person who practices them but are also a great means of promoting the good of the broader human family.
St. Louis gave many missions promoting devotion to the Blessed Mother, including an encouragement to consecrate one’s life to Mary. I owe my own vocation to my mother’s devotion to the Blessed Mother, and I also inherited that devotion personally — so much so, that on my 15th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood, June 27, 2007, I consecrated my own life to Mary. I renewed that consecration this past March 25.
Such a consecration recognizes that all I have is a gift from God. I also recognize my own sinfulness and how much we can benefit through the intercession of Mary to grow in holiness, because it was through Mary that God gave his son to the world, and through Mary, we gain a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. A similar sentiment was expressed in the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta when she signed my breviary in 1992: “Be only and all for Jesus through Mary.”
My friends, St. Paul summed up well the longing of our hearts when he said: “Seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1b). Our society today, in turning away from God, pursues many things that cannot satisfy. We need the support of believers to renew our efforts to turn to God through his son. We need the intercession of our Blessed Mother to help us love her son and to faithfully follow and serve him.
I was speaking with a family friend who recently lost her husband. She told me that every morning, he asked God in prayer: “What can I do for you today, Lord?” Dear people, this is exactly the kind of devotion and prayer we need to renew the Church and to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ that is ours through baptism. If we ask the Lord this simple question every day, it will reorient our entire life — and we call that conversion! This is what building the Kingdom of God looks like.
In a similar vein, we can prayerfully ask for the grace to put the Gospel into concrete action in each of our lives. If we prayerfully ask the Lord these two simple requests each day, he will not deny our prayer. If we ask Our Lady to join us more closely to her son, we will hear God’s answer to our prayer and will have the grace we need to succeed in rebuilding God’s Church and, at the same time, rebuilding the culture into which we are sent to proclaim Jesus Christ.
Read the rest of the June/July issue of Northwest Catholic here.