To
the Montfortian Religious Family on the Occasion
of the 50th Anniversary of
The Canonization of St. Louis Marie Grignon de
Montfort
Letter of John Paul II
June 21, 1997
To Reverend Father
William
Considine,
Superior General of the Company of Mary
To Reverend Brother
Jean
Friant,
Superior General of the Brothers of
Christian Instruction of St Gabriel
To Reverend Mother
Barbara
O'Dea
Superior General of the Daughters of
Wisdom
1. The Montfortian Family is about to begin a
year set apart for the celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the canonization of St
Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, which took
place in Rome on 20 July 1947. With the Company
of Mary, the Brothers of St Gabriel and the
Daughters of Wisdom, I am happy to offer thanks
to the Lord for the growing influence of this
missionary saint whose apostolate was nourished
by a life of intense prayer, by an unshakeable
faith in the Triune God and by a deep devotion
to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the
Redeemer.
Poor among the poor, profoundly integrated into
the Church despite the lack of understanding he
had to face, St Louis-Marie adopted as his motto
these simple words: “God Alone”. He sang: “God
alone is my tenderness, God alone is my support,
God alone is my every good, my life and my
wealth” (Canticle 55, 11). His love for God was
total. It was with God and for God that he went
towards other people and walked the roads of the
mission. Constantly aware of the presence of
Jesus and Mary, his entire being was a witness
to the theological virtue of charity which he
desired to share with everyone. His deeds and
his words had only one aim, to call people to
conversion and to motivate them to live for God.
His writings are full of testimony to and praise
of the Incarnate Word and also of Mary,
“masterpiece of the Most High, miracle of
Eternal Wisdom” (Love of Eternal Wisdom, n.
106).
2. The message that Fr de Montfort has left
behind for us is inseparably founded on the
meditations of the mystic that he was and the
pastoral teaching of an apostle. Basing himself
on the great theological currents in vogue at
that time, he expressed his personal faith in
tune with the culture of his time. By turns
poetic and familiarly close to the language of
his audience, his style can surprise our
contemporaries, but that should not prevent us
from being inspired by his fertile intuitions.
That is why the work accomplished today by the
Montfortian Family is precious: it helps the
faithful to grasp the coherence of a theological
and spiritual vision that is always oriented
towards an intense life of faith and charity.
Before all else, St Louis-Marie impresses us by
his theocentric spirituality. He has “a taste
for God and his truth” (Love of Eternal Wisdom,
n. 13) and knows how to communicate his faith in
God, speaking at one and the same time of the
majesty and of the gentleness of God, for God is
a spring overflowing with love. Fr de Montfort
does not hesitate to unveil, even to the
humblest persons, the mystery of the Trinity
which inspires his prayer and reflection on the
redemptive Incarnation, the work of the divine
Persons. He wants us to grasp the reality of the
divine presence in the time of the Church. In a
notable way he writes: “The plan adopted by the
three persons of the Blessed Trinity in the
Incarnation, the first coming of Jesus Christ,
they adhere to each day in an invisible manner
throughout the Church and they will pursue it to
the end of time until the last coming of Jesus
Christ” (True Devotion to Mary, n. 22). In our
time, his witness can help us base our Christian
existence on faith in the living God, on a warm
relationship with God and on a solid ecclesial
experience, thanks to the Spirit of the Father
and the Son, whose reign continues in the
present (cf. Prayer for Missionaries, n. 16).
3. The person of Christ dominates the thought of
Grignion de Montfort: “Jesus, our Saviour, true
God and true man, must be the ultimate end of
all other devotions” (True Devotion to Mary, n.
61). The Incarnation of the Word is for him the
absolute central reality: “Eternal and incarnate
Wisdom ... I adore you ... dwelling in the
splendour of your Father from all eternity and
in the virginal womb of Mary, your most worthy
Mother, at the time of your Incarnation” (Love
of Eternal Wisdom, n. 223). The ardent
celebration of the person of the incarnate Son
of God, which resonates in all Fr de Montfort's
teachings, retains even today its inestimable
worth, for it represents a balanced vision from
the doctrinal point of view, and it leads to
adherence with one's entire being to the One who
reveals to humanity its true vocation. If only
the faithful could heed this exhortation: “Jesus
Christ (the Eternal Wisdom) is everything that
you can and should wish for. Long for him, seek
him, ... that unique and precious pearl” (ibid.,
n. 9)!
Contemplation of the grandeur of the mystery of
Jesus goes hand in hand with the contemplation
of the Cross, which Montfort made the principal
sign of his missions. Often subjected to harsh
trials, he himself knew its weight as testified
in a letter he wrote to his sister in which he
requested her prayers “to obtain from Jesus the
grace for me to carry the roughest and heaviest
crosses” (Letter, n. 24). Day after day, he
practised the imitation of Christ through what
he would call the foolish love of the Cross in
which he saw “the triumph of Eternal Wisdom”
(Love of Eternal Wisdom, ch. XIV). Through the
sacrifice of Calvary, the Son of God makes
himself little and humble to the very extreme;
he shares the condition of his brothers and
sisters who are subject to suffering and death.
Here, Christ manifests his infinite love in an
eloquent manner and opens to humanity the way to
new life. Louis-Marie, who followed his Lord and
“fixed his abode in the Cross” (ibid., n. 180),
gives a witness to holiness that his heirs in
the Montfortian Family must pass on in their
turn, so as to reveal to this world the truth of
saving love.
4. In order to know the Eternal Wisdom,
uncreated and incarnate, Grignion de Montfort
invited people to put their trust in the Blessed
Virgin Mary, who is so inseparable from Jesus
“that it would be easier to separate light from
the sun” (True Devotion to Mary, n. 63). He
remains an incomparable bard and disciple of the
Mother of the Saviour whom he honours as the one
who so assuredly leads towards Christ: “If then
we are establishing sound devotion to Our
Blessed Lady, it is only in order to establish
devotion to Our Lord more perfectly, by
providing a smooth but certain way of reaching
Jesus Christ” (ibid., n. 62). For Mary is the
creature chosen by the Father and totally
dedicated to her maternal mission. Having
entered into union with the Word through her
free consent, she is associated in a privileged
manner with the Incarnation and the Redemption,
from Nazareth to Golgotha and the Upper Room, in
absolute faithfulness to the presence of the
Holy Spirit. She “found grace with God for
everyone in general and each one in particular”
(ibid., n. 164).
St Louis-Marie also calls on us to abandon
ourselves entirely to Mary in order to welcome
her presence in the very depth of our souls.
“Mary becomes all things for the soul that
wishes to serve Jesus Christ. She enlightens his
mind with her pure faith. She deepens his heart
with her humility. She enlarges and inflames his
heart with her charity, makes it pure with her
purity, makes it noble and great through her
motherly care” (Secret of Mary, n. 57). Recourse
to Mary leads one to give Jesus an ever greater
place in one's life; it is significant, for
example, that Montfort invites the faithful to
turn to Mary before communion: “Implore Mary to
lend you her heart so that you may receive her
Son with her dispositions” (True Devotion to
Mary, n. 266).
In our times when Marian devotion is quite alive
but not always sufficiently enlightened, it
would be good to recapture Fr de Montfort's
fervour and his correct tone, in order to give
the Virgin her rightful place and to learn how
to pray to her: “Mother of mercy, grant me the
favour of obtaining the true Wisdom of God, and
so make me one of those whom you love, teach and
guide. ... Virgin most faithful, make me in
everything a committed disciple, imitator, and
slave of Jesus, your Son, incarnate Wisdom”
(Love of Eternal Wisdom, n. 227). No doubt
certain changes in the language seem imperative,
but the Montfortian Family must continue its
Marian apostolate in the spirit of its founder,
in order to help the faithful maintain a living
and intimate relationship with her whom the
Second Vatican Council honoured as a
supereminent and absolutely unique member of the
Church, recalling that, “As St Ambrose taught,
the Mother of God is a type of the Church in the
order of faith, charity and perfect union with
Christ” (Lumen gentium, n. 63).
5. The Montfortian year draws our attention to
the main lines of the spirituality of St
Louis-Marie, but it is also most appropriate to
recall that he was a missionary of extraordinary
range and influence. Just after his ordination
he wrote: “I feel a tremendous urge to make Our
Lord and his Holy Mother loved, to go in a
humble and simple way to teach catechism to the
poor”. He lived in complete fidelity to this
vocation, which he wished to share with the
priests who were to join him. In the Rule of the
Missionary Priests of the Company of Mary, he
invites the apostolic missionary to preach with
simplicity, truthfulness, without fear and with
charity, adding: “His intention must be holy and
centred on God alone. God's glory must be his
sole preoccupation and he must first practise
what he preaches” (n. 62).
Now that the need for a new evangelization has
become imperative in most parts of the world, Fr
de Montfort's zeal for the Word of God, his
solicitude for the very poor, his ability to
make himself understood by the simplest folk and
to stimulate their piety, his qualities for
organizing, his initiatives to sustain fervour
by founding spiritual movements and to involve
the laity in the service of the poor, all that,
with practical adaptations, can inspire the
apostles of today. One of the constants in the
numerous missions preached by St Louis-Marie
himself deserves to be underscored today: he
called for the renewal of the promises of
Baptism, even making this exercise a
prerequisite for absolution and communion. This
takes on considerable topical interest, in this
first preparatory year for the Great Jubilee of
the year 2000, which is dedicated precisely to
Christ and to the sacrament of Baptism. Montfort
understood very well the importance of this
sacrament which consecrates us to God and
constitutes the community, as well as the need
to rediscover, in a firm adherence of faith, the
significance of the commitments of Baptism.
A Gospel wayfarer inflamed by the love of Jesus
and of his holy Mother, he knew how to touch the
hearts of the crowds, and how to make them love
the Redeeming Christ, contemplated on the Cross.
May he support the efforts of the evangelizers
of our times!
6. Dear brothers and sisters of the great
Montfortian Family, in this year of prayer and
reflection on the precious heritage of St
Louis-Marie, I encourage you: make this treasure
bear fruit; it must not remain hidden. The
teaching of your founder and master coincides
with the themes that the whole Church meditates
on at the approach of the Great Jubilee; it
marks out for us the path of true wisdom that
must be laid open to so many young people who
search for meaning in their lives and for an art
of living.
I welcome your initiatives at diffusing
Montfortian spirituality in forms that are
suitable to different cultures, thanks to the
collaboration of the members of your three
institutes. Be also a support and a point of
reference for the movements which take their
inspiration from the message of Grignion de
Montfort in order to give to Marian devotion an
ever surer authenticity. Renew your presence
among the poor, your insertion into the pastoral
activity of the Church, your availability for
evangelization.
As I entrust your religious life and your
apostolate to the intercession of St Louis-Marie
Grignion de Montfort and Blessed Marie-Louis
Trichet, I wholeheartedly impart to you, as well
as to all those who are close to you whom you
serve, the Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 21 June 1997
IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
© Copyright 1997 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
