Dear Ruth,
The webmaster of our website forwarded to me your question. Sorry, for the delay. Here is my response to your blogger's question:
The true devotion to Jesus through Mary is not intended to exclude praying directly to Jesus, the Father or the Holy Spirit. One can and should have direct access to God. What St. Louis promotes in true devotion is the concept of a greater humility by going through Mary first. His reasoning is (1) God proceeds through Mary in for Jesus' birth and humanity. (Jesus could have appeared on earth as a full-grown man, but rather chose to be dependent upon his mother). (2) To return to the Father one follows the same path, so to speak, Mary--Jesus--God because St. Louis understands that as being the most perfect way to go back to God, i.e., that is, one retraces the steps God laid out. (3) However, every person has immediate and direct access to Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit and one should go directly to them. It would be a theological error to say that one cannot go to them. One should not have any guilt or qualms about that; and that is not what St. Louis is saying. (4) He is saying, that it requires more humility for us to go through Mary (that is to rely on her help and prayers) and that the virtue of humility is pleasing to God because it is the chief virtue of the Trinity, Mary and all the saints. (5) The Trinity has given to some people as special charism or grace called, "true devotion to Jesus through Mary" by which they have a special affinity for this humility and want to please God so much that they turn to Mary to learn from her the virtue of humility (among others), but also to learn from her how best to please the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
So, in summary, St. Louis does not forbid direct access to the Trinity, nor would he. He does, however, promote the charism of "true devotion" as a gift given from God for those men and women whom Our Lady has chosen to receive that gift. These souls will have a special relationship with her and she will lead them to a deeper union with the Tirnity that they could not have received without her.
Fr. Lance W. Harlow
Author, The Echo of God; A Commentary for Beginners on St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort's True Devotion
4 comments:
That was wonderful, so helpful! Thanks for passing it along, Ruth. How nice of Fr. Harlow to reply.
Yes, Kim, I was pleasantly surprised to find his reply. I actually hope to do a blog on his book after the upcoming conference.
Relating to Father's comment/explanation, which was so clear, I really related to his last line: "These souls will have a special relationship with her and she will lead them to a deeper union with the Tirnity that they could not have received without her." That is the yearning in my heart and I am always feeling like I am treading water on my own. I find myself going from book to book and from one spirituality to another so I want to really try to impliment this more in my life before getting back to other spiritual reading. This is why I was happy to find Fr. Harlow's book. It is geared for beginner to help impliment Marian devotion after making the consecration.
Ruth: Thanks for taking the initiative to contact Fr. Harlow. His explanation was wonderful and I can hardly wait to share it with the rest of my group. I am really looking forward to the new book for Lent!
Appreciate your positive reply. Let's me know that this blog is helpful. Let us all continue to pray for one another.
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