True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin - St. Louis de Montfort - Ch.1-2

Introduction of a treatise on the true devotion to the blessed virgin this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by michael portelli a treatise on the true devotion to the Blessed virgin by louis marie grignon de montfort translated by frederick william faber doctor of divinity introduction it is by the most holy virgin mary that jesus has come into the world and it is also by her that he has to reign in the world mary has been singularly hidden during her life

it is on this account that the holy ghost and the church Call her alma mater mother secret and hidden her humility was so profound that she had no propensity on earth more powerful or more unintermitting than that of hiding herself even from herself as well as from every other creature so as to be known to god only he heard her prayers to him when she begged to be hidden to be humbled And to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account he took pleasure in hiding her from all human creatures in her

conception in her birth in her life and in her resurrection and assumption her parents even did not know her and the angels often asked of each other cuised ista who is that because the most high either hid her from them or if he Revealed anything of her to them it was nothing compared to what he kept undisclosed god the father consented that she should do no miracle at least no public one during her life although he had given her the power god the son consented that she should hardly ever speak though he had communicated his

wisdom to her god the holy ghost though she was his faithful spouse Consented that his apostles and evangelists should speak but very little of her and no more than was necessary to make jesus christ known mary is the excellent masterpiece of the most high of which he has reserved to himself both the knowledge and the possession mary is the admirable mother of the son who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life In order to favor her humility calling her by the name of woman muglia as if she was a stranger although in

his heart he esteemed and loved her above all angels and all men mary is the sealed fountain and the faithful spouse of the holy ghost to whom he alone has entrance mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the holy trinity where god dwells more magnificently and More divinely than in any other place in the universe without accepting his dwelling between the cherubim and seraphim neither is it allowed to any creature no matter how pure to enter into that sanctuary without a great and special privilege i say with the saints the divine mary is the

terrestrial paradise of the new adam where he is incarnate By the operation of the holy ghost in order to work their incomprehensible marvels she is the grand and divine world of god where there are beauties and untreasures unspeakable she is the magnificence of the most high where he has hidden as in her bosom his only son and in him all that is most excellent and most precious Oh what grand and hidden things that mighty god has wrought in this admirable creature how has she herself been compelled to say it in spite of her profound humility

he that is mighty hath done great things to me the world knows them not because it is at once incapable and unworthy of such knowledge the saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God and as they themselves avow they have never been more eloquent and more content than when they have spoken of her yet after all they have said they cry out that the height of her merits which she has raised up to the throne of the divinity cannot be fully seen that the breadth of her charity Which is broader than the

earth is in truth immeasurable that the grandeur of her power which she exercises even over god himself is incomprehensible and finally that the depth of her humility and of all her virtues and graces is an abyss which never can be sounded o height incomprehensible o breath unspeakable o grandeur immeasurable o abbas impenetrable every day from one end of the earth to the other In the highest heights of the heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses everything preaches everything publishes the admirable mary the nine choirs of angels men of all ages sexes conditions and

religions good or bad now even the devils themselves willingly or unwillingly are compelled by the force of truth to call her Blessed saint bonaventure tells us that all the angels in heaven cry out incessantly to her sancta sancta sancta maria de genitrex et vergo holy holy holy mary mother of god and virgin and that they offer to her millions and millions of times a day the angelical salutation ave maria prostrating themselves before her and begging of her in her graciousness to honour them with some of her commands Saint michael as saint augustine says although the

prince of all the heavenly court is the most zealous in honoring her and causing her to be honoured while he waits always in expectation that he may have the honor to go at her bidding to render service to some one of her servants the whole earth is full of her glory especially among christians amongst whom she is Taken as the protectors of many kingdoms provinces dioceses and cities numbers of cathedrals are consecrated to god under her name there is not a church without an altar in her honor not a country or a canton where there

are not some miraculous images where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained who can count the Confraternities and congregations in her honour how many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection what numbers there are of brothers and sisters of all these confraternities and of all religious men and women of all these orders who publish her praises and confess her mercies There is not a little child who as it lisps the ave maria does not praise her there is scarcely a sinner who even in his

objeracy has not some spark of confidence in her nay the very devils in hell respect her while they fear her after that we must surely say with the saints of mary there is never enough we have not yet praised exalted honored loved and served mary as we ought to she has deserved still more praise still More respect still more love and far more service after that we must say with the holy ghost omnis gloria philly regis arb intus all the glory of the king's daughter is within it is as if all the outward glory which

heaven and earth rival each other in laying at her feet is nothing in comparison with that which she receives within From the creator and which is not known by creatures who in their littleness are unable to penetrate the secret of the secrets of the king after that we must cry out with the apostle oculus vidit i has not seen nor ear heard nor man's heart comprehended the beauties the grandeurs the excellences of mary the miracle of the miracles of grace Of nature and of glory if you wish to comprehend the mother says a saint comprehend

the son for she is the worthy mother of god omnis lingua hear let every tongue be mute it is with a particular joy that my heart has dictated what i have just written in order to show that the divine mary has been up to this time unknown and That this is one of the reasons that jesus christ is not known as he ought to be if then as is certain the kingdom of jesus christ is to come into the world it will be but a necessary consequence of the knowledge of the kingdom of the most

holy virgin mary who brought him into the world the first time and will make his second advent full of Splendor end of introduction recording by michael portelli part 1 of a treatise on the true devotion to the blessed virgin this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by michael portelli A treatise on the true devotion to the blessed virgin by louis marie grignon de montfort translated by frederick william faber doctor of divinity part 1 on devotion to our blessed lady in

general excellence and necessity of devotion to our blessed lady i avow with all the church that mary being but a mere creature that has come from the hands of the most high Is in comparison with his infinite majesty less than an atom or rather she is nothing at all because he only is he who is and thus by consequence that grand lord always independent and sufficient to himself never had and has not now any absolute need of the holy virgin for the accomplishment of his will and for the manifestation Of his glory he has but

to will in order to do everything nevertheless i say that things being supposed as they are now god having willed to commence and to complete his greatest works by the most holy virgin since he created her we may well think he will not change his conduct in the eternal ages for he is god and he changes not either in his sentiments or in his conduct God the father has not given his only begotten to the world except by mary whatever size the patriarchs may have sent forth whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the

ancient law may have offered up to obtain that treasure for full four thousand years it was but mary that merited it it was but mary who found grace before god By the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues the world was unworthy says saint augustine to receive the son of god immediately from their father's hands he has given him to mary in order that the world might receive him through her the son of god has made himself man but it was in mary and by mary god the holy ghost has formed jesus

christ in Mary but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of his court god the father has communicated to mary his fruitfulness as far as a mere creature was capable of it in order that he might give her the power to produce his son and all the members of his mystical body god the son has descended into her virginal womb As the new adam into the terrestrial paradise to take his pleasure there and to work in secret the marvels of his grace god made man has found his liberty

in seeing himself imprisoned in her womb he has made his omnipotence shine forth in letting himself be carried by that blessed virgin he has found his glory and his father's In hiding his splendors from all creatures here below and revealing them to mary only he has glorified his independence and his majesty in depending on that sweet virgin in his conception in his birth in his presentation in the temple in his hidden life of thirty years and even in his death where she was to be present in order That he might make with her but one

same sacrifice and be immolated to the eternal father by her consent just as isaac of old was offered by abraham's consent to the will of god it is she who has suckled him nourished him supported him brought him up and then sacrificed him for us oh admirable and incomprehensible dependence of a god which the holy ghost could not pass in Silence in the gospel although he has hidden from us nearly all the admirable things which that incarnate wisdom did in his hidden life as if he would enable us by his revelation of that at least

to understand something of its price jesus christ gave more glory to god the father by submission to his mother during those 30 years Than he would have given him in 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 if we examine narrowly the rest of our blessed lord's life we shall see that it was his will To begin his miracles by mary he sanctified saint john in the womb of

saint elizabeth his mother but it was by mary's word no sooner has she spoken then john was sanctified and this was his first and greatest miracle of grace at the marriage at cana he changed the water into wine but it wasn't mary's humble prayer and this was his first miracle of nature He has begun and continued his miracles by mary and he will continue them to the end of ages by mary also god the holy ghost being barren in god that is to say not producing another divine person is become fruitful by mary whom he

has espoused it is with her in her and of her that he has produced his masterpiece which is a god Made man and whom he goes on producing in the persons of his members daily to the end of the world are the predestination of that adorable head this is the reason why he the holy ghost the more he finds mary his dear and indissoluble spouse in any soul becomes the more active and mighty in producing jesus christ in that soul and that soul In jesus christ it is not that we may say that our blessed

lady gives the holy ghost his fruitfulness as if he had it not himself for in as much as he is god he has the same fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the father and the son only that he does not bring it into action as he does not produce another divine person but what we want to say is that the holy ghost Chose to make use of our blessed lady though he had no absolute need of her to bring his fruitfulness into action by producing in her and by her jesus christ in his members a

mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among christians the conduct which the three persons of the most holy trinity have deigned to pursue in the incarnation and first coming of Jesus christ they still pursue daily in an invisible manner throughout the whole church and they will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of jesus christ god the father made an assemblage of all the waters and he named it the sea mari he has made an assemblage of all his graces And he has called it mary

maria this great god has a most rich treasury in which he has laid up all that he has of beauty of splendor of rarity and of preciousness even to his own son and this immense treasury is none other than mary whom the saints have named the treasure of the lord out of whose plenitude all men are made rich God the son has communicated to his mother all that he has acquired by his life and by his death his infinite merits and his admirable virtues and he has made her the treasures of all that his father

has given him for his inheritance it is by her that he applies his merits to his members and that he communicates his virtues And distributes his graces she is his mysterious canal she is his aqueduct through which he makes his mercies flow gently and abundantly to mary his faithful spouse god the holy ghost has communicated his unspeakable gifts and he has chosen her to be the dispensatrix of all he possesses in such sort that she distributes to Whom she wills as much as she wills and as she wills and when she wills all his gifts

and graces the holy ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which he does not pass through her virginal hands she has been the will of god who has willed that we should have everything in mary so that she who Impoverished humbled and hid herself even to the abyss of nothingness by her profound humility her whole life long should now be enriched and exalted by the most high such are the sentiments of the church and the holy fathers if i were speaking to the free thinkers of these times i would prove what i have said so

simply drawing it out More at length and confirming it by the holy scriptures and the fathers quoting the original passages and addressing various solid reasons which may be seen at length in the book of father poiret but as i speak particularly to the poor and simple who being of good will and having more faith than the common run of scholars believe more simply and so more Meritoriously i content myself with putting out the truth quite simply without stopping to quote the original passages which they would not understand nevertheless without making much research i shall not

fail from time to time to bring forward some of them but let us now go on with our subject in inasmuch as grace perfects nature and glory perfects grace It is certain that our lord is still in heaven as much the son of mary as he was on earth and that consequently he has preserved the most perfect obedience and submission of all children towards the best of all mothers but we must take great pains not to conceive of this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus christ for mary is infinitely below her son who

is god and therefore she does not command him as a mother here below would command her child who is below her mary being altogether transformed into god by grace and by the glory which transforms all the saints into him asks nothing wishes nothing does nothing which is contrary to the eternal and Immutable will of god when we read then in the writings of saints bernard bernardine bonaventure and others that in heaven and on earth everything even to god himself is subject to the blessed virgin they mean to say that the authority which god has been

well pleased to give her is so great that it seems as if she has the same power as god And that her prayers and petitions are so powerful with god that they always pass for commandments with his majesty who never resists the prayer of his dear mother because she is always humble and conformed to his will if by moses by the force of his prayer arrested the anger of god against the israelites in a manner so powerful that the most High and infinitely merciful lord being unable to resist him told him to let him alone

that he might be angry with and punish that rebellious people what must we not with much greater reason think of the prayer of the humble mary that worthy mother of god which is more powerful with his majesty than the prayers and intercessions of All the angels and saints both in heaven and on earth mary commands in the heavens the angels and the blessed as a recompense for her profound humility god has given her the power and permission to fill with saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride such has been the

will of the most high who exalts the humble that heaven earth And hell bend with good will or bad will to the commandments of the humble mary whom he has made sovereign of heaven and earth general of his armies treasurer of his treasures dispenser of his graces worker of his greatest marvels restorer of the human race mediatrix of men the exterminator of the enemies of god and the faithful companion of his Grandeurs and his triumphs god the father wishes to have children by mary till the consummation of the world and he has said to her

these words in jacob in habitat dwell in jacob that is to say make your dwelling and residence in my predestinated children figured by jacob and not in the reprobate children of the devil figured by isau just as in the natural And corporal generation of children there is a father and a mother so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a 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 he who is not mary for his mother

has not god for his father This is the reason why the reprobate such as heretics schismatics and others who hate our blessed lady or regatta with contempt and indifference have not god for their father however much they boast of it simply because they have not mary for their mother for if they had her for their mother they would love and honor her as a true and good child naturally loves and honors the mother Who has given him life the most infallible and injubitable sign by which we may distinguish a heretic a man of bad doctrine

a reprobate from one of the predestined is that the heretic and the reprobate have nothing but contempt and indifference for our blessed lady endeavouring by their words and examples to diminish the worship and love of her openly or hiddenly And sometimes under spacious pretexts alas god the father has not told mary to dwell in them for they are esl's god the son wishes to form himself and so to speak to incarnate himself every day by his dear mother in his members and he has said to her in israel israel for your inheritance it is as

if he had said god the father has given me for an Inheritance all the nations of the earth all the men good and bad and predestination the one i will lead with a rod of gold and the others with a raw divine of one i will be the father and the advocate the just punisher of others and the judge of all but as for you my dear mother you shall have for your heritage and possession only the predestinate figured by israel And as their good mother you shall bring them forth and maintain them and as

their sovereign you shall conduct them govern and defend them this man and that man is born in her says the holy ghost according to the explanation of some of the fathers the first man that is born in mary is the man god jesus christ the second is a mere man the child of god and mary by adoption if jesus christ the Head of men is born in her the predestinate who are the members of that head ought also to be born in her and by a necessary consequence one and the same mother does not bring

forth into the world the head without the members nor the members without the head for this would be a monster of nature so in like manner in the order of grace the head and the members are born of one and the same Mother and if a member of the mystical body of jesus christ that is to say one of the predestinate was born of any other mother than mary who has produced the head he would not be one of the predestinate nor a member of jesus christ but simply a monster in the order of grace

besides this jesus being at present as Much as ever the fruit of mary as heaven and earth repeat thousands and thousands of times each day and blessed be the fruit of thy womb jesus it is certain that jesus christ is for each man in particular who possesses him as truly the fruit of the womb of mary as he is for the whole world in general so that if anyone of the faithful has jesus christ formed in his heart He can say boldly all thanks be to mary what i possess is her effect and her fruit

and without her i should never have had it we can apply to her more truly than saint paul applied to himself these words formed i am in libra again with all the children of god until jesus christ my son be formed in them in the fullness of his Age saint augustine surpassing himself and going beyond all i have yet said affirms that all the predestinate in order to be conformed to the image of the son of god are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy virgin where they are guarded nourished brought

up and made to grow by that good mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death Which is probably the day of their birth as the church calls the death of the just o mystery of grace unknown to the reprobate but and but little known even to the predestinate god the holy ghost wishes to form himself in her and to form elect for himself by her and he has said to her inelectus mayas meter Radices strike the roots my well beloved and my spouse of all your virtues in my elect in order that

they may grow from virtue to virtue and from grace to grace i took so much complacence in you when you lived on earth in the practice of the most sublime virtues that i desire still to find you on earth without your ceasing to be in heaven for this end reproduce yourself in my elect That i may behold in them with complacence the roots of your invincible faith of your profound humility of your universal mortification of your sublime prayer of your art and charity of your firm hope and all your virtues you are always my spouse

as faithful as pure and as fruitful as ever let your faith give Me my faithful your purity my virgins and your fertility my temples and my elect when mary has struck her roots in a soul she produces their marvels of grace which she alone can produce because she alone is the faithful virgin who never has had and never will have her equal impurity and in fruitfulness mary has produced together with the holy ghost the greatest thing which has been or Ever will be which is a god man and she will consequently produce the greatest things

that there will be in the latter times the formation and education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her for it is only that singular and miraculous virgin who can produce in union with the holy ghost singular and extraordinary things when The holy ghost her spouse has found mary in a soul he flies there he enters there in his fullness he communicates himself to that soul abundantly and to the full extent to which she makes room for her spouse nay one of the great reasons why the

holy ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because he does not find there a sufficiently great union With his faithful and indissoluble spouse i say indissoluble spouse because since that substantial love of the father and the son has espoused mary in order to produce jesus christ the head of the elect and jesus christ in the elect he has never repudiated her in as much as she has always been fruitful and faithful we may evidently conclude Then from what i have said that mary has received from god a great domination over the

souls of the elect for she cannot make her residence in them as god the father ordered her to and form them in jesus christ or jesus christ in them and strike the roots of her virtues in their hearts and be the indissoluble companion of the Holy ghost in all his works of grace she cannot i say do all these things unless she has a right and domination over their souls by a singular grace of the most high who having given her power over his only and natural son has given it also to her over his

adopted children not only as to their bodies which would Be but a little matter but also to their souls mary is the queen of heaven and earth by grace as jesus is the king of them by nature and by conquest now as the kingdom of jesus christ consists principally in the heart and interior of a man according to that word the kingdom of god is within you In like manner the kingdom of our blessed lady is principally in the interior of a man that is to say his soul and it is principally in souls that

she is more glorified with her son than in all visible creatures and that we can call her as the saints do the queen of hearts we must conclude that the most holy virgin being necessary to god by a necessity which we call hypothetical in Consequence of his will she is far more necessary to men in order for them to arrive at their last end we must not confound devotions to our blessed lady with devotions to the other saints as if devotion to her was not far more necessary than devotion to them or as if devotion

to her were a matter of super irrigation the learned and Pious suarez the jesuit the erudite and devout justice lipseus doctor of levane and many others have proved invincibly in consequence of the sentiments of the fathers and among others of saint augustine saint ephrem deacon of odessa saint cyril of jerusalem saint germanus of constantinople saint john damascene saint anselm saint bernard Saint bernardin saint thomas and saint bonaventure that devotion to our blessed lady is necessary to salvation and that even in the opinion of ekko lampardius and some other heretics it is an infallible mark of

reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy virgin while on the other hand it is an infallible mark of predestination To be entirely and truly devoted to her the figures and words of the old and new testaments prove this the sentiments and examples of the saints confirm it reason and experience teach and demonstrate it even the devil and his crew constrained by the force of truth have often been obliged to avow it in their own despite among all the passages of the holy Fathers and doctors of which i have made an ample collection

in order to prove this truth i shall for brevity say quote but one tibi devoteem to be devout to you o holy virgin says saint john damascene is an arm of salvation which god gives to those whom he wishes to save i could bring forward here many histories which prove the same thing And among others one which is related to the chronicles of saint dominic there was an unhappy heretic near carcassonne where saint dominic was preaching the rosary who was possessed by a legion of fifteen thousand devils these evil spirits were compelled to their confusion

by the commandment of our blessed lady to avow many great and consoling truths touching devotion to the holy virgin and They did this with so much force and so much clearness that it is not possible to read this authentic history and the panegrik which the devil made in spite of himself of devotion to the most holy mary without shedding tears of joy without lukewarm we may be in our devotion to her if devotion to the most holy virgin mary is necessary to all men Simply for working out their salvation it is still more so for

those who are called to any particular perfection and i do not think anyone can acquire an intimate union with our lord and a perfect fidelity to the holy ghost without a very great union with the most holy virgin and a great dependence on her secure it is mary alone who has found grace before god Without the aid of any other mere creature it is only by her that all those who have found grace before god have found it at all and it is only by her that all those who shall come afterwards shall find it

she was full of grace when she was saluted by the archangel gabrielle and she was super abundantly filled with grace by the holy ghost when he covered her with his unspeakable Shadow and she has so augmented from day to day and from moment to moment this double plenitude that she has reached a point of grace immense and inconceivable in such sort that the most high has made her the sole treasurer of his treasures and the sole dispenser of his graces to enable to exalt and to enrich whom she wishes to give the entry to whom

she wills into the Narrow way of heaven to pass from whom she wills and in spite of all obstacles through the straight gate of life and to give the throne the scepter and the crown of the king to whom she wills jesus is everywhere and always the fruit and the son of mary and mary is everywhere the veritable tree who bears the fruit of life And the true mother who produces it it is mary alone to whom god has given the keys of the sellers of divine love and the power to enter into the most

sublime and secret ways of perfection and the power likewise to make others enter in there also it is mary alone who has given to the miserable children of eve the faithless the entry into the terrestrial paradise That they may walk there agreeably with god hide themselves there securely against their enemies and feed themselves there deliciously without any more fear of death on the fruit of the trees of life and of knowledge of good and evil and drink in long drafts the heavenly waters of that fair fountain which gushes forth there with abundance Or rather she

is herself a terrestrial paradise that virgin and blessed earth from which adam and eve the sinners have been driven and she gives no entry there except to those whom it is her pleasure to make saints all the rich among the people to make use of an expression of the holy ghost according to the explanation of saint bernard all the rich Among the people shall supplicate thy face from age to age and particularly at the end of the world that is to say the greatest saints the soul's richest in graces and virtues shall be the most

assiduous in praying to our blessed lady and in having her always present as their perfect model to imitate and their powerful aid to give them Secure i have said that this would come to pass particularly at the end of the world and indeed presently because the most high with his holy mother has to form for himself great saints who shall surpass most of the other saints in sanctity as much as the cedars of lebanon outgrow the little shrubs as has been revealed to a holy soul whose life has been written By a great servant of

god these great souls full of grace and zeal shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of god who shall rage on all sides and they shall be singularly devout to our blessed lady illuminated by her light nourished by her milk led by her spirit supported by her arm and sheltered under her protection so that they shall Fight with one hand and build with the other with one hand they shall fight overthrow and crush the heretics with their heresies the schismatics with their schisms the idolaters with their idolatries and the sinners with their impieties

with the other hand they shall build the temple of the true solomon and the mystical city of god that is to say The most holy virgin called by the holy fathers the temple of solomon and the city of god by their words and their examples they shall bend the whole world to true devotion to mary this shall bring upon them many enemies but it shall also bring many victories and much glory for god alone it is this which god revealed to saint vincent ferrer The great apostle of his age as he has sufficiently noted in

one of his works it is this which the holy ghost seems to have prophesied in the 58th psalm of which these are the words and they shall know that god will rule jacob and all the ends of the earth they shall return at evening and shall suffer hunger like dogs and shall go round about the city This city which men shall find at the end of the world to convert themselves in and to satisfy the hunger they have for justice is the most holy virgin who is called by the holy ghost the city of god

it is by mary that the salvation of the world has begun and it is by mary that it must be consummated mary has hardly appeared at all in the first coming of jesus christ In order that men as yet but little instructed and enlightened on the person of her son should not remove themselves from him in attaching themselves too strongly and too grossly to her this would have apparently taken place if she had been known because of the admirable charms which the most high had bestowed even upon her exterior this is so true that saint

dennis the aryappagite has informed us in his Writings that when he saw our blessed lady he should have taken her for a divinity in consequence of her secret charms and incomparable beauty had not the faith in which he was well established taught him the contrary but in the second coming of jesus christ mary has to be made known and revealed by the holy ghost in order that by her jesus christ may be known Loved and served the reasons which moved the holy ghost to hide his spouse during her life and to reveal her but are

very little since the preaching of the gospel subsists no longer god then wishes to reveal and discover mary the masterpiece of his hands in these latter times one because she hid herself in this world and put herself Lower than the dust by her profound humility having obtained of god and of his apostles and evangelists that she should not be made manifest two because being the masterpiece of the hands of god as well here below by grace as in heaven by glory he wishes to be glorified and praised in her by those who are living upon

the earth three as she is the aurora which proceeds and discovers the son of Justice who is jesus christ she ought to be recognized and perceived in order that jesus christ may be so four being the way by which jesus christ came to us the first time she will also be the way by which you will come the second time though not in the same manner five being the sure means and the straight and immaculate way to go to Jesus christ and to find him perfectly it is by her that the holy souls who are

to shine forth especially in sanctity have to find our lord he who shall find mary shall find life that is jesus christ who is the way the truth and the life but no one can find mary who does not seek her and no one can seek her who does not Know her for we cannot seek or desire an unknown object it is necessary then for the greater knowledge and glory of the most holy trinity that mary should be more known than ever six mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy in might and in

grace in these latter times in mercy to bring back and lovingly Receive the poor straight sinners who shall be converted and shall return to the catholic church in might against the enemies of god idolaters schismatics mittens jews and souls hardened in impiety who shall rise in terrible revolt against god to seduce all those who shall be contrary to them and to make them fall by promises and threats And finally she must shine forth in grace in order to animate and sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of jesus christ who shall do battle for his

interests seven and lastly mary must be terrible to the devil and his crew as an army ranged in battle principally in these latter times because the devil knowing that he has but little time and now less than ever to destroy souls Will every day redouble his efforts and his combats he will presently raise up new persecutions and will put terrible snares before the faithful servants and true children of mary whom it gives him more trouble to surmount than it does to conquer others it is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil which

shall go on increasing daily till the reign of Antichrist that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction and curse of god pronounced in the terrestrial paradise against the serpent it is to our purpose to explain this here for the glory of the most holy virgin for the salvation of her children and for the confusion i will put enmities between thee and the woman And thy seed and her seed she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel god has never made or formed but one enmity but it is

an irreconcilable one which shall endure and develop even to the end it is between mary his worthy mother and the devil between the children and the servants of the blessed virgin and the children and instruments of Lucifer the most terrible of all the enemies which god has set up against the devil is his holy mother mary he has inspired her even since the days of the earthly paradise though she existed then only in his idea with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of god with so much industry in unveiling the malice of that old

serpent with so much power to conquer to Overthrow and to crush that proud impious rebel that he fears her not only more than all angels and men but in some sense more than god himself it is not that the anger the hatred and the power of god are not infinitely greater than those of the blessed virgin for the perfections of mary are limited but it is first because satan being proud Suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of god and her humility humbles him more than the divine power

and secondly because god has given mary such a great power against the devils that as they have often been obliged to confess in spite of themselves by the mouths of the possessed they fear One of her size for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints and one of her menaces against them more than all other torments what lucifer has lost by pride mary has gained by humility what eve has damned and lost by disobedience mary has saved by obedience eve in obeying the serpent has destroyed all her children together with herself And

has delivered them to him mary being perfectly faithful to god has saved all her children and servants together with herself and has consecrated them to his majesty god has not only set an enmity but enmities not simply between mary and the devil but between the race of the holy virgin and the race of the devil that is to say god has set enmity antipathies and secret hatreds between The true children and the servants of mary and the children and servants of the devil they do not love each other mutually they have no inward correspondence with

each other the children of belial the slaves of satan the friends of the world for it is the same thing have always up to this time persecuted those who belong to our blessed lady And will in future persecute them more than ever just as of old cain persecuted his brother abel and esau his brother jacob who are the figures of the reprobate and the predestinate but the humble mary will always have the victory over that proud spirit and so great a victory that she will go the length of crushing his head where his pride dwells

she will always Discover the malice of the serpent she will always counterwork his infernal minds and dissipate his diabolical councils and will guarantee even to the end of time her faithful servants from his cruel claw but the power of mary over all the devils will especially break out in the latter times when satan will lay his snares against her heel that is to say her humble slaves And her poor children whom she will raise up to make war against him they shall be little and poor in the world's esteem and are based before all like

the heel trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body but in return for this they shall be rich in the grace of god which mary shall distribute to them abundantly They shall be great and exalted before god in sanctity superior to all other creatures by their animated zeal and leaning so strongly on the divine secure that with the humility of their heel in union with mary they shall crush the head of the devil and cause jesus christ to triumph in a word god wishes that his holy mother should

be at present more known More loved more honoured than she has ever been this no doubt will take place if the predestinate enter with the grace and light of the holy ghost into the interior and perfect practice which i will disclose to them shortly then they will see clearly as far as faith allows that beautiful star of the sea they will arrive happily in harbor following its guidance in spite of the Tempests and the pirates they will know the grandeurs of that queen and will consecrate themselves entirely to her service as subjects and slaves of

love they will experience her sweetnesses and her maternal goodnesses and they will love her tenderly like well-beloved children they will know the mercies of which she is full and the need they have of her secure And they will have recourse to her in all things as to their dear advocate and mediatrix with jesus christ they will know what is the most sure the most easy the most short and the most perfect means by which to go to jesus christ and they will deliver themselves to mary body and soul without reserve that they may thus be

all for jesus christ but who shall be those servants slaves And children of mary there shall be a burning fire of the ministers of the lord who shall kindle the fire of divine love everywhere and secrets sargiete in mano potentis like sharp arrows in the hand of the powerful mary to pierce her enemies they shall be the sons of levi well purified by the fire of great tribulation and closely adhering to god who shall Carry the gold of love in their heart the incense of prayer in their spirit and the myrrh of mortification in their

body and they shall be everywhere the good odor of jesus christ to the poor and to the little while there shall be an odor of death to the great to the rich and to the proud worldlings there shall be clouds thundering and flying through the air at the least breath of the holy Ghost who without attaching themselves to anything without being astonished at anything without putting themselves in pain about anything shall shower forth the reign of the word of god and of life eternal they shall thunder against sin they shall storm against the world they

shall strike the devil and his crew and they shall strike further and Further for life or for death with their two-edged sword of the word of god all those to whom they shall be sent on the part of the most high shall they shall be the true apostles of the latter times to whom the lord of hosts shall give the word and the might to work marvels and to carry off the glory of the spoils of his enemies they shall sleep without gold or silver And what is more without care in the middle of the

other priests ecclesiastics and clocks intermedios cleros and yet they shall have the silvered wings of the dove to go with the pure intention of the glory of god and the salvation of souls wheresoever the holy ghost shall call them neither shall they leave behind them in the places where they have preached Anything but the gold of charity which is the accomplishment of the whole law in a word we know that they shall be true disciples of jesus christ who marching in the footsteps of his poverty humility contempt of the world and charity shall teach the

straight way of god in the pure truth according to the holy gospel and not according to the maxims of the world without putting themselves in pain about Things or accepting persons without sparing fearing or listening to any mortal however influential he may be they shall have in their mouths the two edged sword of the word of god 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 on their hearts and the modesty and modification of

jesus christ in their own behavior these are the great men who shall come but mary shall be there by the order of the most high to extend his empire over that of the empires the idolaters and the mahometons but when and how shall this be god alone knows it is for us to hold our tongues to pray to sigh and to wait Expectance expectation expecting i have expected end of part one recording by michael portelli part two of a treatise on the true devotion to the blessed virgin mary by louis marie grignon de montfort translated

by father frederick faber dd this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by maria therese discernment of the true devotion to our Blessed lady having said something so far of the necessity which we have of the devotion to the most holy virgin i must now show in what this devotion consists this i will do by god's help after i shall first presuppose some fundamental truths which shall throw light on that grand and solo division which i desire to disclose First truth jesus christ our savior true god and true man ought to be the last

end of all our other devotions else they are false and elusive jesus christ is the alpha and omega the beginning and the end of all things we labor not as the apostle says except to render every man perfect in jesus christ because it is in him alone that the whole plentitude of the divinity dwells together with all the other plentitudes Of graces virtues and perfections because it is in him alone that we have been blessed with all spiritual benediction and because he is our only master who has to teach us our only lord on whom

we ought to depend our only head to whom we must belong our only model to whom we should conform ourselves our only physician who can heal us our only shepherd Who can feed us our only way who can lead us our only truth who can make us grow our only life who can animate us and are only all in all things who can suffice us there has been no other name given under heaven except the name of jesus by which we can be saved god has laid no other foundation of our salvation of our perfection

And of our glory except jesus christ every building which is not built upon that firm rock is founded upon the moving sand and sooner or later will fall infallibly every one of the faithful who is not united to him as a branch to the stock of the vine shall fall shall wither and shall be fit only to be cast into the fire if we are in jesus christ and jesus christ in Us we have no condemnation to fear neither the angels of heaven nor the men of earth nor the devils of hell nor any other

creatures can injure us because they cannot separate us from the love of god which is in jesus christ by jesus christ with jesus christ in jesus christ we can do all things we can render all honor and glory to god in the unity of the holy ghost we can become perfect ourselves And be to our neighbor a good order of eternal life if then we establish the solid devotion to our blessed lady it is only to establish more perfectly the devotion to jesus christ and to put forward an easy and secure means for finding jesus

christ if devotion to our lady removed us from jesus christ we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil But on the contrary so far from this being the case there is nothing which makes devotion to our lady more necessary for us as i have already shown and will show still further hereafter than that it is the means of finding jesus christ perfectly of loving him tenderly and of serving him faithfully i here turn for one moment to thee o my sweet jesus To complain lovingly to thy divine majesty that the greater

part of christians even the most learned do not know the necessary union which there is between thee and thy holy mother thou lord art always with mary and mary is always with thee and she cannot be without thee else she would cease to be what she is she is so transformed into thee by grace that she lives no more That she is as though she were not it is thou only my jesus who liveth and rainest in her more perfectly than in all the angels in the blessed all if we knew the glory and the

love which thou received in this admirable creature we should have very different thoughts both of thee and her from what we have now she is so Intimately united with thee that it were easier to separate the light from the sun the heat from the fire i say more it were easier to separate from thee all the angels and the saints than the divine mary because she loves thee more ardently and glorifies thee more perfectly than all other creatures put together after that my sweet master is it not an astonishingly pitiable thing To see the ignorance

and the darkness of all men here below in regard to thy holy mother i speak not so much of idolaters and pagans who knowingly not care not to know thee i speak not even of heretics and sismatics who care not to be devout thy holy mother being separated as they are from thee and thy holy church but i speak of catholic christians and even of doctors amongst catholics Who make profession of teaching truths to others and yet know not the nor thy holy mother except in a speculative dry barren and indifferent manner these doctors speak

but rarely of thy holy mother and of the devotion which we ought to have to her because they fear so they say lest we should abuse it and should do some injury to thee in too much honoring thy holy mother if They see or hear any one devout to our blessed lady speaking often of his devotion to that good mother in a tender strong and persuasive way as of secure means without delusion as of a short road without danger as of an immaculate way without perfection and as of a wonderful secret for finding and loving

thee perfectly they cry out against him and give him a thousand false reasons By way of proving to him that he ought not to talk so much of our blessed lady that there are great abuses in that devotion and that we must direct our energies to destroy these abuses and to speak of thee rather than to incline the people to devotion to our blessed lady whom they already love sufficiently we hear them sometimes to become devotion to thy holy mother not for the purpose of Establishing it and persuading men to it but to destroy the

abuses which are made of it well all that time these teachers are without piety or tender devotion towards thyself simply because they have none for mary they regard the rosary the scapular and the chaplet as devotions proper for weak and ignorant minds and without which men can save themselves and if their falls into their Hands any poor client of our lady who says his rosary or has any other practice of devotion towards her they soon change his spirit and his heart instead of the rosary they counsel him the seven penitential psalms instead of devotion to

the holy virgin they counsel him devotion to jesus christ oh my sweet jesus have these people got thy spirit Do they please thee in acting thus is it to please thee to spare one single effort to please thy mother for fear of thereby displeasing me those devotion to thy holy mother hinder devotion to thyself is it that she attributes to herself the honor which we pay her is it that she makes a side for herself apart is it that she is an alien who has no union with thee Does it displeasy that we should try

to please her is it to separate or to alienate ourselves from thy love to give ourselves to her and to love her yet my sweet master the greater part of the learning could not shrink more from devotion to thy holy mother and could not show more indifference to it if all that i have just said were true keep me lord keep me from their Sentiments and their practices and give me some share in the sentiments of gratitude esteem respect and love which thou hast in regard to thy holy mother only that i may love thee

and glorify thee all the more by imitating and following me more closely so as if up to this point i have still said nothing in honor of thy holy mother give me now the grace to praise her Worthily made dignity to him machine cullidare in spite of all her enemies who are thine as well and grant me to say loudly with the saints nom praise tumat ali qui stay um seha berry perpitium benedictum matrim offensum haberit let not that man presumed to look for the mercy of god who offends his holy mother to obtain of

Thy mercy a true devotion to thy holy mother to inspire it to the whole earth make me to love thee ardently and for that and receive the burning prayer which i make to thee with saint augustine and my true friends 2s christus patra mayo sanctus deus mayos pios rex meus magnus pastor mayos bonus magister meus unus audratro meus optimus deductus males with cherry moose pawnee Smells vivos societus mayos in eternium dukes mayo luke's mayor vera ducera recta sapienza man plicara [Music] [Music] [Music] amen i have desired to put in latin this admirable prayer saint augustine

in order that those who understand latin may say it every day to ask for the love of god which we seek By the divine mary the translator thinks it well to give the prayer in english and without throwing it into the small print of a note thou art christ my holy father my tender god my great king my good shepherd my one master my best helper my most beautiful and my beloved my living bread my priest forever my leader to my Country my true light my holy sweetness my straight way my excellent wisdom my pure

simplicity my pacific harmony my whole guard my good portion my everlasting salvation christ jesus sweet lord why have i ever loved why in my whole life have i ever desired anything except thee jesus my god where was i when i was not in thy mind with thee Now from this time forth do ye all my desire grow hot and flow out upon the lord run ye have been tardy so far hasten whether ye are going seek whom you are seeking o jesus may he who loves thee not be anathema may he who loves thee not

be filled with bitterness o sweet jesus may every good feeling that is fitted for thy praise love thee delight in thee admire thee god of my Heart and my portion christ jesus may my heart faint away in spirit and mayest thou be my life within me may the life cult of thy love grow hot within my spirit and break forth into a perfect fire may it burn incessantly on the altar of my heart may it glow in my innermost being may it blaze and hidden recesses of my soul and in the day of my consummation

may i Be found consummated with thee amen second truth we must conclude from what jesus christ is with regard to us that we do not belong to ourselves but as the apostle says are entirely his as his members and his slaves whom he has bought at an infinitely dear price the price of all his blood before baptism we belong to the devil as his slaves But baptism has made us true slaves of jesus christ who have no right to live to work or to die except to bring forth fruit for that god-man to glorify him

in our bodies and to let him reign in our souls because we are his conquest his acquired people and his inheritance it is for the same reason that the holy ghost compares us one to trees planted along the waters of Grace in the field of the church who ought to bring forth their fruit and their seasons 2 to the branches of a vine of which jesus christ is the stalk and which must yield good grapes 3 to a flock of which jesus christ is a shepherd and which is to multiply and give milk for to

a good land of which god is the laborer in which the seed multiplies itself and Brings forth thirtyfold sixtyfold and a hundredfold jesus christ cursed the unfruitful fig tree and gave sentence against the useless servant who had not made any profit on his talent all this proves to us that jesus christ wishes to receive some fruit from our wretched selves namely our good works because those good works belong to him alone crayotti and aperi busbonia and cristo Yezu created in good works in christ jesus which would show both that jesus christ is the sole principle

and ought to be the sole end of all our good works and also that we ought to serve him not as servants on wages but as slaves of love i will explain myself here on earth there are two ways of belonging to another And of depending on his authority namely simple service and slavery what we mean by a servant and what we mean by a slave by common service amongst christians a man engages himself to serve another during certain times at a certain rate of wages or recompense by slavery a man is entirely dependent on

another for his little life and must serve his master without pretending to any wages or reward Just as one of his beasts over which he has the right of life and death there are three sorts of slavery a slavery of nature a slavery of constraint and a slavery of the will all creatures are slaves of god in the first sense domini s terra at plenitududo eus the earth is the lord's and the fullness of it the demons in the damned are slaves in the second sense The just and the saints in the third the slavery

of the will is the most glorious to god who looks at the heart claims the heart and calls himself the god of the heart that is of the loving will because by that slavery we make choice of god and his service above all things even when nature does not oblige us to it there is an entire difference between a servant and a slave One a servant does not give all he is all he has and all he can acquire by himself or by another to his master but the slave gives himself hope and entire to

his master all he has and all he can gain without any exception two the servant exacts wages for the services which he performs for his master but the slave can exact nothing whatever institution Whatever industry whatever energy he may have at his work 3 the servant can leave his master when he pleases or at least when the time of his service shall be expired but the slave has no right to quit his master at his will 4 the master of the servant has no right of life and death over him so that if he kill

him like one of his beasts a burden he would commit an Unjust homicide but the master of the slave has by the law a right of life and death over him so they may sell him to anybody he likes or kill him as if he stood on the same level as one of his horses five lastly the servant is only for a time in his master service the slave is for always there is nothing among men which makes us belong to another more than slavery There is nothing among christians which make us more absolutely belong

to jesus christ and his holy mother than the slavery of the will according to the example of jesus christ himself who took on him the form of a slave for love of us for monsavia cipiens and also according to the example of the holy virgin who is called the servant and the slave of the lord the apostle calls himself as by a title Of honor servers christie the slave of christ christians are often called in the holy scriptures serving christi slaves of christ which word service as a great man is truly remarked signified in old

times nothing but a sleigh because there were no servants then like those of the present day masters were served only either by slaves or by freed men It is this which the catechism of the holy council of trent in order to leave no doubt about our being slaves of jesus christ expresses by an unequivocal term and calling us mancipia christi slaves of jesus christ having promised this i say that we ought to be to jesus christ and to serve him not only as mercenary servants but as loving slaves who by an effect of great love

give Themselves up to serve him in the quality of slaves with the simple honor of belonging to him before baptism we were the slaves of the devil baptism has made us the slaves of jesus christ christians must need be either the slaves of the devil or the slaves of jesus christ what i say absolutely of jesus christ i say relatively of our blessed lady Jesus christ having chosen her for the inseparable companion of his life of his death of his glory and of his power in heaven and upon earth has given her by grace relatively

to his majesty all the same rights and privileges which he possesses by nature quick deo convenient pranataram maria convenid per graziam all that is fitting to god by nature is fitting to mary by grace Say the saints so that according to them mary and jesus having but the same will and the same power the two of the same subjects servants and slaves we may therefore following the sentiments of the saints and of many great men call ourselves and make ourselves the loving slaves of the most holy virgin in order to be by that very means

the more perfectly The slaves of jesus christ our blessed lady is the means our lord made use of to come to us she is also the means which we must make use of to go to him for she is not like all the rest of creatures who if we should attach ourselves to them might rather draw us away from god and draw us near him the strongest inclination of mary is to unite us to jesus christ her son And the strongest inclination of the son is that we should come to him by his holy mother

it is to honor and please him just as it would be to do honor and pleasure to a king to become more perfectly his subject and his slave by making ourselves the slaves of the queen it is on this account that the holy fathers and saint bonaventure after them said that our lady was the way to go to Our lord v of an india christian as the propagary of elam the way of coming to christ is to draw near to her moreover if as i have said the holy virgin is the queen and sovereign of

heaven and of earth then is it not true what has been said by saint anselm saint bernard saint bernardin and st bonaventure has she not as many subjects and slaves As there are creatures imperio de omnia all things the virgin included are subjects to the empire of god we hold all things and god included are subject to the empire of the virgin [Music] is it not reasonable that amongst so many slaves of constraint there should be some of love who of their own good will and the quality of slaves should choose Mary for their mistress

what are men and devils to have their voluntary slaves and marry to have none what shall king hold it to be for his honor that the queen his companion should have slaves over whom she has the right of life and death because the honor and power of the one is the honor and power of the other and yet are we to think that our lord who as the best of all sons has divided his entire power with his holy mother Shall take it ill that she too has her slaves has he less respect and love

for his mother than our soros had for esther or then solomon for best phoebe who shall dare to say so or even to think it but wither is my pen hurrying me why am i stopping here to prove a thing so plain if we do not wish to call ourselves Slaves of the blessed virgin what matter let us make ourselves and call ourselves slaves of jesus christ for that is to be the slave of the holy virgin and as much as jesus is the fruit and the glory of mary and it is in this very

thing which we do by the devotion of which we are hereafter to speak third truth our best actions are ordinarily stained and corrupted by the Ground of evil which is so deeply laid up in us when we put clean and clear water into a vessel which has a foul and evil smell or wine into a cask the inside of which has been spoiled by another wine which has been in it the clear water and the good wine are spoiled and readily take the bad odor in like manner when god puts into the vessel of our

soul spoiled by original and actual sin his Grace and heavenly dues or the delicious wine of his love his gifts are ordinarily spoiled and corrupted by the bad lovin and the evil which sent has left within us our actions even the most sublime and virtuous feel the effects of it it is therefore of great importance and the acquiring of perfection which it must be remembered is only acquired by union with jesus christ To empty ourselves of everything which is bad within us otherwise our lord who is infinitely pure and hates infinitely the least stained upon

our souls will cast us out from his presence and would not unite himself to us 1. to empty ourselves of ourselves we must first thoroughly recognize by the light of the holy ghost our inward corruption our incapacity for every good thing Useful for salvation our weakness in all things our inconstancy at all times our indignity of every grace and our iniquity in every position the sin of our first father has spoiled us all soured us puffed us up and corrupted us as eleven sowers puffs and corrupts the paste into which it is put the actual

sins which we have committed whether mortal or venial Pardon though they may be have nevertheless increased our concupiscence our weakness our inconstancy and our corruption and have left evil consequences in our souls our bodies are so corrupted that they are called by the holy ghost bodies of sin conceived in sin nourished in sin and capable of all sin bodies subject to thousands of maladies which go on corrupting from day to day And which engender nothing but disease vermin and corruption our soul united to our body has become so carnal that it is called flesh all

flesh having corrupted its way we have nothing for abortion but pride and blindness in the spirit hardness in the heart weakness and inconstancy in the soul concupiscence revolted passions and sicknesses in the body We are naturally prouder than peacocks more groveling on the earth than toads more vile than unclean animals more envious than serpents more gluttonous than hogs more furious than tigers lazier than tortoises weaker than reeds and more capricious than weather we have done in our own selves nothing but nothingness and sin and we deserve nothing but the anger of god and the everlasting

hell After this are we to be astonished if our lord has said that whatsoever wishes to follow him must renounce himself and hate his own soul and that whosoever shall love his end soul shall lose it and whosoever shall hate it shall save it he who has infinite wisdom does not give commandments without reason and he has only commanded us to hate ourselves because we so richly deserve To be hated nothing is worthy of love than god and nothing is worthier of hatred than ourselves two secondly in order to empty ourselves of ourselves we must

die to ourselves daily that is to say we must renounce the apparitions of the powers of our soul and of the senses of our body we must see as if we saw not understand as if we understood not and Make use of the things of this world as if we made no use of them at all this is what saint paul calls dying daily quotidier mourier if the grain of corn falling on the earth does not die it remains earth and brings forth no good fruit nusi granum frumenti cottons and taram mortu and furit ibsum

manat if we die not to ourselves and if our holiest devotions do not incline us to This necessary and useful death we shall bring forth no fruit worth anything and our devotions will become useless all our justices will be stained by self-love and our own will and this will cause god to hold an abomination the greatest sacrifices we can make and the best actions we can do so that at our death we shall find our hands empty of virtues and of merits and we shall not have one spark of pure Love which is only communicated

to souls dead to themselves souls whose life is hidden with jesus christ and god three we must choose therefore among all the devotions to the blessed virgin the one which draws us most towards this death to ourselves and as much as it will be the best and the most sanctifying for we must not think that all that shines is gold That all that tastes sweet is honey or all that is easy to do and is done by the greatest number sanctifying as there are secrets of nature to do in a short time at little cost

and with facility natural operations so also in like manner there are secrets in the order of grace to do in a short time with sweetness and facility supernatural Operations such as emptying ourselves of self filling ourselves with god and becoming perfect the practice which i am about to disclose is one of these secrets of grace unknown by the greatest number of christians known even to few of the devout and practiced and relished by a far less number still but in order to begin to disclose this practice let us consider a fourth truth Which is the

consequence of the third fourth truth it is more perfect because it is more humble not to approach god of ourselves without taking a mediator the very foundation of our nature as i have just shown is so corrupted that if we lean on our own works industries and preparations in order to reach god and to please him it is certain that our justices will be Defiled or be of little weight before god to engage him to unite himself to us and to hear us it is not without reason that god has given us mediators with his

majesty he has seen our unworthiness and incapacity he has had pity upon us and in order to give us access to his mercies he has provided us with powerful intercessors with his grandeur in so much that to Neglect these mediators and to draw near to his holiness directly and without any recommendation is to fail in humility it is to fail and respect towards god so high and so holy it is to make thus account of that king of kings than we should make of a king or prince of earth whom we should not willingly approach

without some friend to speak for us our lord is our advocate and mediator of Redemption with god the father it is by him that we ought to pray and union with the whole church triumphant and militant it is by him that we have access to the majesty of the father before whom we ought never to appear except leaning on the merits and indeed clothed with the merits of his son just as the young jacob came before his father isaac in the skins of the kids to Receive his benediction but have we not need of a

mediator with a mediator himself is our purity great enough to unite us directly to him and by ourselves is he not god and all things equal to his father and by consequence the holy of holies as worthy of respect as his father if by his infinite charity he has made himself our bail in our mediator with god his father In order to appease him and to pay him what we owed him are we on that account to have less respect and less fear for his majesty and his sanctity let us say boldly with saint bernard

that we have need of a mediator with the mediator himself and that it is the divine mary who is the most capable of filling that charitable office it is by her that jesus christ came and It is by her that we must go to him if we fear to go directly to jesus christ our god whether because of his infinite greatness or because of our vileness or because of our sins let us boldly implore the age and intercession and marry our mother she is good she is tender she has nothing in her austere or repulsive

nothing too sublime and too brilliant in seeing her we see our pure nature She is not the son who by the vastity of his rays blinds us because of our weakness but she is fair and gentle as the moon which receives the light of the sun and tempers it to render it more suitable to our capacity she is so charitable that she repels none of those who ask her intercession no matter how great sinners they have been for as the saints say never has it been heard since the World was the world that anyone as

confidently and perseveringly had recourse for a blessed lady and yet has been repelled she is so powerful that never have any of her petitions been refused she is but to show herself before her son to pray to him and straightway he grants her desires straightway he receives her prayers He is always lovingly vanquished by the breasts the yearnings and the prayers of his dearest mother all this is drawn from saint bernard and from saint bonaventure so that according to them we have three steps to mount to go to god the first which is the nearest

to us and the most suited to our capacity is mary the second is jesus christ and the third is god the father to go to jesus we must go to mary She is our mediatrix of intercession to go to god the father we must go to jesus for he is our mediator of redemption now it is by the devotion which i am about to bring forward that this order is guarded perfectly fifth truth it is very difficult considering our weakness and frailty to preserve in ourselves the graces and treasures which we receive from god one

because we have this treasure which is worth more than heaven and earth put Together inferior vessels habemus they saw room ist victilibus we have this treasure in earthen vessels in a corruptable body and in a weakened and constant soul which a mere nothing disturbs and dejects 2. because the devils who are skillful thieves wish to surprise us unawares and to strip us They watch day and night for the favorable moment for that and they go round about us incessantly to devour us and to snatch from us in one moment by us sin all that we

have gained of graces and of merits for many years their malice their experience their stratagems and their number ought to make us fear immensely this misfortune especially when we see how many persons fuller of grace than we Are richer in virtues better founded in experience and far higher exalted in sanctity have been surprised robbed and unhappily pillaged ah how many of the cedars of lebanon how many of the stars of the firmament have we not seen to fall miserably and then the twinkling of an eye to lose all their height and all their brightness once

comes that sad and curious change It has not been for want of grace which is wanting to know man but it has been one of humility they thought themselves stronger and more sufficient than they were they thought themselves capable of guarding their own treasures they trusted in themselves leaned upon themselves they thought their house secure enough and their coffers strong enough to keep the precious treasure of their Grace it is because of that scarcely sensible leaning upon themselves while all the while it seemed to them that they were leaning only on the grace of god

that the most just lord has permitted them to be robbed by leaving them to themselves alas if they had but known the admirable devotion which i will unfold presently they would have confided their treasure to a virgin powerful and faithful Who would have kept it for them as if it had been her own possession nay who would have even taken it as an obligation of justice on herself to preserve it for them 3. it is difficult to persevere injustice because of the strange corruption of the world the world is now so corrupt that it seems

to be inevitable that religious hearts should be soiled if not by its mud At least by its dust so that it has become a kind of miracle for anyone to remain firm in the midst of this impetuous torrent without being drawn in by it in the midst of that stormy sea without being drowned in it or stripped by the pirates in the corsairs and the midst of that pestilent air without being infected by it it is the virgin Alone faithful in whom the serpent has never had part who works this miracle for those who serve

her in that sweet way which i assortly do unfold having assumed these five truths we must now take more pains than ever to make a good choice of the true devotion to our blessed lady there are at this time more than ever false devotions to our blessed lady Which it is easy to mistake for true ones the devil like a false coiner and a subtle inexperienced sharper has already deceived and destroyed so many souls by a false devotion to the blessed virgin that he makes a daily use of his diabolical experience to plunge many others

by the same way into everlasting perdition amusing them lulling them to sleep and Sin under the pretext of some prayer is badly said or of some outward practices which he inspires as a false coiner doesn't ordinarily counterfeit anything but gold and silver were very rarely the other metals because they are not worth the trouble so the evil spirit does not for the most part counterfeit the other devotions but only those to jesus and mary the Devotion to holy communion and to our blessed lady because they are among other devotions what gold and silver are amongst

medals it is then very important first of all to know one false devotions to our blessed lady in order to avoid them and to the true devotion in order to embrace it in conclusion among so many practices of true devotion to our blessed lady I will explain more in detail in the second part of this treatise which is the most perfect one the one most agreeable to our lady the most glorious to god and the most sanctifying to ourselves in order that we may attach ourselves to it end of part two you