Opening Prayer
Lord, I use the marks of true devotion to formulate The Secret of Mary as the Way that can lead me most surely to a perfect union with Your Son. I recognize that she is the Star of the Sea who guides us through the bitterness of the world to the harbor of eternal life. Let my devotion to her be the foundation of my salvation and the model for my imitation.
I petition for the grace to stay united to Christ, the only Way, Truth, and Life, through the intercession of His Mother. Help me to understand that every spiritual blessing I receive comes through the union of the earth of our humanity with Your divine nature. May my life be a continuation of the loving submission that Mary showed to Your eternal Word.
Amen.
Matthew 23:1-12
1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, 2Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. 3All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not. 4For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. 5And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. 6And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, 7And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi. 8But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren. 9And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. 10Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ. 11He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
St. Louis de Montfort
St. Louis de Montfort evaluates the marks of true devotion to Mary. Montfort differentiates exterior show from interior union. The Gospel “Greatest shall be servant” is the clinical reality of the Handmaid of the Lord. Mary is the mysterious channel through whom the “King of kings” comes to our home. Montfort reminds us that “God… has willed that we should have everything through Mary“. The spiritual paper cuts of fruitless efforts are healed by her intercession. “She guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one bed“—the heart’s union with Christ.
Mary is the most certain “Way” to lead the soul to Jesus, our Alpha and Omega. True devotion to her is never an end in itself but is the most perfect means of union with the only “Physician who can heal us“. By being united to her, we are more perfectly and securely united to her Son, the singular foundation of our salvation.
“Jesus Christ… is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of everything… He’s the only Physician who can heal us; the only Shepherd who can feed us; the only Way that can lead us.”
— St. Louis de Montfort
Mary and the Magisterium
If Jesus is everything to the believer, then Mary is the shortest way to ensure He is our all in all. To follow her is to be branch-grafted onto the True Vine.
- Does my devotion to Mary "lead me to Jesus perfectly"?
- Am I "hiding myself in the abyss of nothingness" with her, to be "enriched by the Most High"?
Closing Prayer
Mary, Star of the Sea, pray for us and lead us in the way of everlasting life.
Amen.
