In Echo of the Doctrinal Note Mater Populi Fidelis
Fr. François-Marie Léthel OCD
Translated from French
Signed by our Pope Leo XIV, the doctrinal note of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Mater Populi Fidelis” must be received with respect, in an attitude of creative fidelity, as a talent to be made fruitful.
Through its critique of the titles Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Mother of grace, the document of the Dicastery opposes a Marian spirituality that would be insufficiently Christocentric. Beyond the rather negative appearance of the text, one must grasp the intention of the Holy Father, which is to promote within the People of God the Love of the Virgin Mary in the full Light of the Mystery of Jesus.
Indeed, as St. John Paul II said when presenting the doctrine of St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, “true Marian devotion is Christocentric” (Letter to the Religious of the Montfortian Families, 8 December 2003, n. 2). In that important document, which shows the harmony between the texts of Second Vatican Council and those of Louis-Marie (Appendix 1), he recalled the great light he received from his first reading of the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, that essential Christocentric dynamic summarised in the expression Ad Iesum per Mariam, in that Totus Tuus addressed to Jesus through Mary which then guided his entire life.
The doctrinal note refers to the Church’s Living Tradition represented by the Magisterium and the Saints. Beginning with chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium on Mary in the Mystery of Christ and of the Church, Popes St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have unfolded in perfect continuity this luminous teaching of the Council, which synthesised the Church’s Marian doctrine, always founded on Scripture and developed harmoniously in the Tradition of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. This can be seen in the numerous references and quotations.
In the same spirit and perspective, one may extend and complete this teaching by referring to other saints who have particularly deepened this doctrine concerning Mary in the Mystery of Christ and of the Church, using the “prism” of the theology of the saints, that is to say, the complementarity of the Fathers of the Church, the Medieval Doctors, and the Mystics (from the Middle Ages to the modern era). The great contribution of the Mystics (some of whom are Doctors of the Church) is to offer an “experiential verification” of the great truths of the Faith, which is particularly important with regard to Mary.
Regarding the ecumenical intention of the text, it must be recalled that Marian doctrine unites us with all the Orthodox Churches, as well as with the Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Churches. It remains, on the contrary, a point of division with the Churches arising from the Protestant Reformation, in connection with Ecclesiology, which remains the principal problem. Ecumenical dialogue with our Protestant brethren invites us to speak of Mary in this Christocentric light, recalling that she remains a creature and is never an object of adoration. One must always insist on the Absolute of Jesus Christ and the total relativity of Mary and of the Church in relation to Him, excluding every form of “mariolatry” or “Mariocentrism”, “ecclesiocentrism” or “ecclesiolatry”. Pope Francis has often denounced this “ecclesiocentric” temptation which appears in clericalism.
Thus, within this broad perspective of the theology of the saints, it is possible to complement the doctrinal note by referring first to St. Irenaeus of Lyons, declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis, then to that great Medieval Doctor St. Anselm, followed by those Mystics who are St. Catherine of Siena (Doctor of the Church), St. John Eudes and St. Louis-Marie de Montfort (candidates for the Doctorate of the Church), St. Thérèse of Lisieux (Doctor of the Church), and finally several recent Servants of God of the Salesian family of Don Bosco who have offered new developments in Eucharistic and Marian spirituality[1].
St. Irenaeus of Lyon
At the end of the second century, St. Irenaeus of Lyon accomplished the first great theological synthesis based on the whole of Sacred Scripture interpreted within the Church’s Living Tradition. His work remains an inexhaustible source for the theology of all Christian Churches. It has immense ecumenical value.
He unfolds marvellously the great Pauline theme of the Recapitulation of all things in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:10), in its double cosmic and historical dimension. For him, Jesus is truly “the Centre of the Cosmos and of History”. From this single Centre, he already opens all the greatest perspectives that the Church will never cease to deepen and explore throughout her History: God the Trinity, creation and salvation, Mary and the Church, protology and eschatology, etc.
His symbolic theology of the “two Hands of the Father”, which are the Son and the Holy Spirit, reveals an inexhaustible richness for contemplating the profound bond that intimately unites Jesus, Mary, and the Church. The Incarnation of the Son of God is accomplished through the action of the Holy Spirit in the virginal maternity of Mary. This is the “new birth” which finds its continuation in the Church through our baptismal birth. The virginal and maternal womb is inseparably the womb of Mary and of the Church.
In the work of Irenaeus we find the first unfolding of pneumatology and mariology, always within his Christocentric perspective of Recapitulation. He already shows that Mary in no way takes the place of the Holy Spirit but is wholly relative to him as she is relative to the Son through her virginal maternity. In his perspective, one should not speak of the Divine Maternity and the Virginity of Mary as two distinct dogmas, but as a single dogma, that of Virginal Maternity as Divine Maternity towards the Son through the action of the Holy Spirit.
For him, Mary is inseparably the New Soil and the New Eve: on the one hand the “Virgin Soil” from which the two Hands of the Father fashioned the New Adam, thus recapitulating the old Adam; on the other hand, she is the New Eve freely obeying the Messenger of God for the Incarnation of the Son of God. For Irenaeus, the maternal obedience of Mary is entirely oriented towards the filial obedience of Jesus in his Redemptive Passion, “obedience on the wood”. Thus, Eve is recapitulated in Mary who becomes her advocate (and not her accuser). “The knot of Eve’s disobedience is untied by Mary’s obedience”, which theologically underpins the beautiful popular devotion to Mary who unties knots, so dear to Pope Francis. In this light, Irenaeus does not hesitate to affirm that Mary, “by obeying, became cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race” (Adversus Haereses, III/21/10–22/4).
We already find in him the Trinitarian Christocentrism of the baptismal symbol which will be taken up at the Council of Nicaea. Jesus is at the centre of the Trinity, between the Father and the Holy Spirit, and Mary is at the heart of the Mystery of Jesus, since it is through Her that the Father has given us his Son by the action of the Holy Spirit.
The Eucharist holds a great place in his theology as the sacrament of Recapitulation: “Our way of thinking is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking” (Adversus Haereses, IV/18/5).
St. Anselm
This great Marian theology of the Church finds one of its most beautiful expressions in St. Anselm in the eleventh century. He offers us the example of a monastic theology in the spirit of the Fathers of the Church (especially St. Augustine), but with the new rational requirements of Medieval theology, which would later characterise university theology as exemplified by St. Thomas.
The perspective of all these Medieval Doctors is always profoundly Christocentric, but one may affirm in this regard a certain superiority of St. Anselm in comparison with university theology, first because his most significant works are written in the literary form of prayer, a form whose scientific character university theology would no longer recognise (hence the absence of prayers in St. Thomas’s Summa Theologiae).
Mary is contemplated in her Divine Maternity, in that unique relationship with Jesus, the God-Man (Deus Homo). Faced with the objections of Muslims, Anselm insists in a new way on the indispensable role of the Holy Humanity of Jesus in his Redemptive Passion for the restoration of the Covenant broken by sin. In the accomplishment of Salvation, the Humanity of Jesus is as important and indispensable as his Divinity, hence his bold rational attempt to demonstrate the existence of the God-Man in the dialogue Cur Deus Homo.
One of the most beautiful fruits of this extraordinary Christocentrism is a new highlighting of the place of Mary in the Mystery of Jesus. From this point of view, the two most important texts are two great theological prayers: “Meditation on Human Redemption” (Meditatio III), which is a prayer to Jesus the Redeemer, and “Prayer to Saint Mary to Obtain Love for Herself and for Christ”) (Oratio VIII). The central part of this prayer to Mary is taken up in the Liturgy of the Hours for the feast of the Immaculate Conception[2]. We give its full text in an appendix (Appendix 2).
The central perspective is the dogma of the Divine Maternity of Mary, whose consequences for us and for all creation Anselm unfolds in a very rigorous manner, without any exaggeration. The perspective is always Christocentric. It is Jesus, true God and true Man, Creator and Saviour, who extends the maternity of Mary like an immense mantle enveloping not only all humanity but also the whole material world and the whole angelic world.
The language is very precise in order clearly to differentiate the action of Jesus and that of Mary. Jesus alone gives salvation, while Mary obtains it from him through her prayer interceding with him. At the end of his prayer Anselm asks for the Love of Jesus and of Mary: to love Jesus with the Heart of Mary, to love Mary with the Heart of Jesus.
THE MYSTICS
This great Marian theology of the Fathers and of the Mediaeval Doctors finds its continuation and, as it were, its verification among the Mystics. We shall retain the example of two women who are Doctors of the Church: St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) and St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897), and of two men who are candidates for the Doctorate of the Church: St. Jean Eudes (1601–1680) and St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673–1716). In this domain of Mysticism, there is an evident feminine predominance.
St. Catherine of Siena
St. Catherine of Siena is the great theologian of the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Mysteries of the Incarnation, the Redemption, and the Church. She offers us one of the finest examples of symbolic theology, which is the privileged expression of ineffable mystical theology, in its complementarity with the intellectual theology of the University. For example, the same truth of the Redemption that St. Thomas expresses through the concepts of merit, satisfaction, efficacy, and so forth (S. Th. III q. 48), is expressed by St. Catherine with the symbol of Blood. She deploys an extraordinary corporeal symbolism whose centre is always Jesus, the Incarnate Word, the “Primordial Symbol” (according to St. Edith Stein). The language of symbols, more incarnate than that of concepts, is the one most fitting for speaking of Mary in the light of the Incarnate Word. It expresses with force great truths that conceptual language struggles to reach. We have a magnificent example of this in the Akathist Hymn.
In Jesus “the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily” (Col 2:9). In the great perspective of Trinitarian christocentrism, Catherine contemplates the Body of Jesus Crucified and Risen as the “theological place” par excellence. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the ladder or the bridge that leads us to Heaven; He is the living book in which He has written the truth of Love with His Blood upon His own flesh. He is the Life offered to all in His Side, in His Heart from which flows the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, who is also the Breath of His Mouth.
Catherine contemplates tirelessly the Mysteries of the Incarnation, the Redemption, and the Church, in which Mary is always intimately united to Jesus. One of the best syntheses is found in two long prayers pronounced in Rome in 1379, one year before her death, two days apart: the Prayer to Mary on the day of the Annunciation (Prayer 11, 25 March) and the Prayer to Jesus in His Passion (Prayer 12, 27 March, Passion Sunday).
In the first text, she contemplates Jesus in Mary at the first instant of the Incarnation, when Mary freely opens to Him “the door of her will” so that He may descend and take flesh in her virginal womb[3]. This is the fundamental maternal cooperation of Mary in the Mystery of the Incarnation, in her heart and her body as a woman. In this prayer the christocentric dynamic of the first prayer to Mary inspired by the Holy Spirit to Elizabeth is verified: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb” (Lk 1:42). Catherine contemplates Jesus in the Womb of Mary already bearing His Cross, desiring from the first instant the fulfilment of our salvation, a great truth clearly shown by St. Thomas (S. Th. III q. 33 and 34).
The second text contemplates the moment when Jesus pours out His Blood upon the Cross to save all humanity and to cause it to be reborn as His Spouse in His opened Side, as His rib near His Heart[4]. This is the “place” of the holy Church, the “sweet Spouse of Christ”.
In other texts, Catherine contemplates Mary near the Cross in her maternal cooperation in the Mystery of the Redemption, in all the strength of her Faith, her Hope, and her Love. Faithful to the text of the Gospel, Catherine contemplates Mary standing near the Cross of Jesus and not fainted and supported by John according to the iconography of her time, shaped by the false idea of feminine weakness and masculine strength. Mary is a true human mother who feels all the pain of the mother who sees her child suffer and die, but she is at the same time the Holy Mother of God, sustained and illumined by the Holy Spirit, participating in a unique manner in the Redeeming Sacrifice of her Son. One may cite here the words of the Second Vatican Council which correspond exactly to the doctrine of Catherine:
“After this manner the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only-begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross as a mother to His disciple with these words: ‘Woman, behold thy son.’ (See John 19:26-27).” (Lumen Gentium 58)
Catherine belongs to those holy women who stand with Mary near the Cross, while all the men, the Apostles, have fled. Only John returned, sustained by Mary and the other women. She shares her maternal love for the Church, then so profoundly wounded and sick, “leprous” according to Catherine’s words, because of the sin of the clergy which would provoke the Great Western Schism in 1378. The Eucharist, Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus, is the living Heart of the Church, the inexhaustible source of Holiness for all, and first of all for priests. Her prophetic desire for daily Communion would be realised only seven centuries later, with Pope St. Pius X.
St. John Eudes and St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort
St. John Eudes and St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort are the principal representatives of the great Christocentric spirituality of the French School, founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle at the beginning of the 17th century. Both are candidates for the Doctorate of the Church, and for many years I have continually worked for their two Causes for Doctorate, in connection with their respective spiritual families, the Montfortians and the Eudists[5].
When our Pope Leo expressed his intention to declare John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church, I immediately sent him a petition in favour of these two Doctorates (Appendix 3). They are both priests who received excellent university-level theological training, but above all they are mystics who experience in Love the whole Truth of the Mystery of Jesus. They are spiritual masters, missionaries, and founders of new families in the Church.
Their great contribution to the Marian spirituality of the People of God is one of the most beautiful fruits of Bérulle’s new Christocentric proposition, in the perspective of St. Anselm concerning Jesus the God-Man, but in response to the new challenges of emerging modernity. Bérulle is both a mystic and a speculative genius whose main merit was to overcome the antithesis between the theocentrism of the Middle Ages and the anthropocentrism of the Renaissance, in a new proposition of Christocentrism as “theo-anthropocentrism”. The centre of everything is neither God alone nor man alone, but the God-Man Jesus Christ. One could speak of a genuine “theo-anthropological turn” of Bérulle, which profoundly marked theology and spirituality, first in France and then throughout the Church. Within these immense perspectives of the Mystery of Jesus and the Recapitulation of all things in Him, one can better perceive the place and role of Mary, always in connection with the Church. Bérulle particularly deepened the Mystery of the Divine Maternity of Mary as an unprecedented relationship of a simple creature to the Divine Person of the Son.
In this light, the Name of Jesus takes first place, before the Name of God. This appears clearly in the writings of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, where the Name of Jesus occurs twice as often as the Name of God. The Carmel of Lisieux was Bérullian and Thérèse is one of the principal witnesses of this new expression of Christocentrism.
At the end of their lives, John Eudes and Louis-Marie wrote their masterpieces in which all this doctrine is synthesised. On the one hand, Le Coeur admirable de la sacrée Mère de Dieu (The Admirable Heart of the Blessed Mother of God), completed by St. John Eudes in 1680, a few days before his death, and on the other hand the Traité de la vraie dévotion à la Sainte Vierge (True Devotion to Mary) written by St. Louis-Marie around 1712 but discovered only in 1842. The two texts complement each other perfectly. John Eudes’ work is very long (1,500 pages)[6], while that of Louis-Marie is brief (200 pages).
In these two texts, we find the same synthesis of the whole Christian Mystery by contemplating Jesus in Mary and Mary in Jesus, that is, Mary in the Mystery of Christ and the Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, chap. VIII). Jesus is always at the centre, as true God and true Man, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the Absolute to whom Mary and the Church are totally relative.
As our Pope Leon recalled in his first message to the Bishops of France on 28 May 2025, John Eudes “was the first to celebrate the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary”. In fact, he first celebrated the Heart of Mary and later the Heart of Jesus. It is in the Heart of Mary that he fully discovered the Heart of Jesus. The symbolism of the Heart deployed by John Eudes in the Coeur Admirable embraces the whole reality of God and Man, of body and spirit, of nature and grace.
Mary is always contemplated within the Mystery of Jesus, entirely relative to Him and dependent on Him. He is all and she is nothing:
“Do you not fear that you may harm the unparalleled goodness of the most adorable Heart of Jesus, your God and your Redeemer, if you address yourself to the charity of the Heart of His Mother? But do you not know that Mary is nothing, has nothing, and can do nothing except from Jesus, by Jesus, and in Jesus; and that it is Jesus who is all, who can do all and who does all in her? Do you not know that it is Jesus who made the Heart of Mary as it is, and who willed to make it a fountain of light, consolation, and all sorts of graces, for all who turn to it in their necessities? Do you not know that not only does Jesus reside and dwell continually in the Heart of Mary, but He Himself is the Heart of Mary, the Heart of her Heart and the soul of her soul; and thus, to come to the Heart of Mary is to come to Jesus; to honour the Heart of Mary is to honour Jesus; to invoke the Heart of Mary is to invoke Jesus?” (VI, p. 189).
As St. Anselm, he asks that we love Mary with the Heart of Jesus and love Jesus with the Heart of Mary:
“O Jesus, Only-begotten Son of God, who willed to be the Only-begotten Son of Mary and to make us her children and Your brothers, make us participants, please, in the love You bear her, as also in the love she bears You, so that we may love Jesus with the Heart of Mary, and love Mary with the Heart of Jesus, and that we may have only one heart and one love with Jesus and Mary” (VIII, p. 105).
All comes from Jesus and all returns to Him. It is He who always gives us His Mother so that with Her we may love Him perfectly. It is the baptismal dynamic of renunciation as self-decentering to give oneself entirely to Jesus through Mary:
“Not only has our Saviour given us His divine Heart, with the holy Heart of His blessed Mother, to be our rule, but also to be our Heart: so that, being members of Jesus and children of Mary, we may have only one heart with our adorable Head and our divine Mother, and that we may perform all our actions with the Heart of Jesus and Mary, that is, in union with the holy intentions and dispositions with which Jesus and Mary performed all their actions. For this purpose, take great care, at least at the beginning of your principal actions, to renounce entirely yourself, and to give yourself to Jesus to unite with His divine Heart, which is one with that of His holy Mother, and to enter into the love, charity, humility, and holiness of that same Heart, so as to do all things in the holy dispositions with which it has always been filled” (VIII, pp. 113-114).
The same doctrine is found in St. Louis-Marie’s Traité (True Devotion), which is admirably constructed like a “French garden” of the period (Appendix 4). Within the great dynamic of Trinitarian Christocentrism of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol, Mary is contemplated at the heart of the Mystery of Jesus. It is with Her and in Her that Louis-Marie operates a new synthesis of all the truths of faith and Christian life.
Indeed, Mary occupies the same place in the descending movement of the Incarnation and the Redemptive Passion, where Jesus gives her to us as Mother, and in the ascending movement of our divinisation[7]. This is clearly shown in the structure of the two parts of the Traité. Louis-Marie first contemplates Mary in the Mystery of Christ and the Church (nn. 1-89) before highlighting the ecclesial path of holiness lived with Mary and in Mary (nn. 90-273) in the unfolding of the grace of the new baptismal birth.
This Marian and ecclesial spirituality is founded on baptism and finds its fulfilment in the Eucharist, Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus, Verum Corpus natum de Maria Virgine (True Body born of the Virgin Mary). In the Eucharistic conclusion of his Traité, Louis-Marie invites the faithful to live Holy Communion with Mary and in Mary, giving themselves entirely to Jesus through Her (the Totus Tuus continuously breathed and renewed by John Paul II, n. 266).
Louis-Marie invites us to welcome fully in our lives this Gift that Jesus the Redeemer gave us by giving us His Mother (cf. John 19, 25-27). Mary continually gives us Jesus and gives us to Him, sharing with us her Faith, Hope, and Love.
The first “fundamental truth” of this Marian spirituality is the Absoluteness and centrality of Jesus, True God and True Man, Creator and unique Saviour (n. 61). Mary is entirely relative to Him so that “solid devotion to the Blessed Virgin (…) is necessary for us only to find Jesus Christ perfectly, and to love Him tenderly and serve Him faithfully” (n. 62). Likewise, the Holy Spirit wishes to make us “living copies of Mary to love and glorify Jesus Christ” (n. 217).
Mary is Mother of Christ and of the Church, inseparably Mother of the Head and of the members of His Mystical Body. Mary’s virginal maternity in the Incarnation extends into the Church where the Holy Spirit continually forms the members of the Body of Christ[8]. From the first instant of the Incarnation, Jesus is already the Head of the Mystical Body[9]. Bearing in her Virginal Womb “Him whom the Heavens cannot contain,” Mary already bears, in a certain way, the members of His Mystical Body. Thus, Louis-Marie invites us to live in the Maternal Womb of Mary to live fully our configuration to Christ the Head, just as Catherine invites us to live in the Side of Jesus the Bridegroom, to live fully the Mystery of the Holy Church, Bride of Jesus. The dogma of the Assumption assures us that Mary is glorified in her Woman’s Body, united for eternity to the Body of the Risen Jesus. The Council highlights the ecclesiological and eschatological significance of the Dogma of the Assumption (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 68-69).
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Designated by Pope Francis as the “Doctor of the Synthesis,”[10] Thérèse of Lisieux integrates the Marian spirituality of Carmel into the broad perspective of Bérullian Christocentrism[11]. As noted earlier, this appears above all in the fact that the Name of Jesus occupies the first place, being twice as frequent as the Name of God in her writings. Alongside the Name of Jesus, the word Love is the most frequent, together with the verb To Love, which is summarised in the words she had inscribed on the partition of her cell: “Jesus is my only Love.”
In one of her early poems, she gives us the key to her Marian spirituality, always perfectly Christocentric:
“O Immaculate Virgin, it is you my Gentle Star
Who gives me Jesus and unites me to Him.
O Mother, let me rest under your veil
Just for today.”[12]
Everything is already said in these simple words! Jesus has given us His Mother so that she may always give Him to us and unite us to Him. Thérèse makes abundant use of the traditional symbolism of the veil or mantle of Mary to signify her ecclesial motherhood. She entered Carmel to live “hidden in the shadow of her virginal mantle” (Ms A, 57r). For Thérèse, living under the veil or mantle of Mary means sharing her intimacy with Jesus in all His Mysteries, from the Incarnation to the Cross, and then in the Resurrection and the glory of Heaven.
During her novitiate, Thérèse wrote a remarkable letter to her cousin Marie Guérin, who had ceased to receive Communion because of her scruples. She encouraged her to frequent Communion, insisting not so much on her own desire to receive Jesus, but on Jesus’ desire to come to her and give Himself to her[13]. She finally told her: “Do not fear loving the Blessed Virgin too much; you will never love her enough, and Jesus will be very pleased because the Blessed Virgin is His Mother” (LT 92). Through these simple words, Thérèse offers the best interpretation of the medieval adage De Maria nunquam satis, often misunderstood by the preachers of her time as referring to privileges and extraordinary events, supposedly filling Mary’s life according to the apocrypha. Thérèse interprets it correctly from the perspective of Love. One can never love (nunquam satis) Mary enough, according to the desire of Jesus Himself. For St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, the error of the “scrupulous devotees” is precisely to see the love of Mary as competing with the love of Jesus—the fear of not loving Jesus enough when loving Mary too much[14]. This letter is an example of the continual presence of both the Eucharistic thread and the Marian thread in Thérèse’s life.
Thérèse contemplates Mary and the Church in the great Light of the Love of Jesus, the light illuminating all her writings. In his final encyclical Dilexit nos, which serves as his spiritual testament, Pope Francis gives the greatest place to Thérèse of Lisieux as a privileged witness of the human and divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. In the final chapter, he recommends her Offering to Merciful Love as the best expression of spirituality and consecration to the Sacred Heart. It is in the light of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary that she discovers the Heart of the Church (Manuscript B)[15].
Mary and the Church are always contemplated within the perspective of Trinitarian Christocentrism of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Thérèse provides its fullest expression in her Offering to Merciful Love. Her continual act of love, “Jesus I love you,” immerses her in the heart of Trinitarian communion: “Ah you know it, Divine Jesus I love you / The Spirit of Love sets me ablaze with His fire / It is in loving You that I draw the Father” (PN 17, stanza 2).
The Divinity of the Three Persons, united to our Humanity in the Person of the Son, shines forth through the attribute of Mercy, through which Thérèse contemplates Justice and all other divine perfections. More than all the saints who preceded her, she penetrated the entire depth of Infinite Mercy, and this is the source of her unlimited hope for the salvation of all her brothers and sisters[16].
In the Person of Jesus, the infinite greatness of Divinity is united with the extreme littleness of our Humanity. For her, as for St. Francis of Assisi, littleness and poverty are first of all the littleness and poverty of the Son of God, who humbles Himself to the utmost in the Mysteries of the Incarnation, the Passion, and the Eucharist, “the proper nature of Love being to abase itself” (Ms A, 2v). She gives the most beautiful synthesis of this in her very last Letter, a few lines on an image painted by herself representing the Child Jesus in the consecrated Host in the hands of the priest:
“I cannot fear a God who has made Himself so small for me. I love Him! For He is nothing but Love and Mercy” (LT 266).
The Carmelite who calls herself Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face lives a privileged communion with the Mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemptive Passion, always in the most intimate union with Jesus in her hidden Carmelite life beneath the veil or mantle of Mary.
In simple language, she expresses the Church’s finest Christology. The Child Jesus, so weak and fragile in Mary’s arms, did not lose His Divinity by taking on our Humanity. He is still the Almighty God and Creator, and in His Humanity, He is already the Saviour who knows and loves each of us personally:
“From Your little hand that caressed Mary
You upheld the world and gave it life
And You thought of me” (PN 24, stanza 6).
In the same poem, contemplating Jesus in His Agony, she says to Him: “You saw me” (stanza 21). This is a great Christological truth, essential for our communion with the Mysteries of His earthly life. Its theological foundation was clarified by St. Thomas: from the first instant of the Incarnation in Mary’s womb, the soul of Jesus had the beatific vision of God face-to-face (and not by faith). Following Catherine, Jean Eudes, Louis-Marie, and other Mystics, Thérèse shows us the importance of this truth for our life. We can truly love Jesus in His childhood and in all the Mysteries of His earthly life because He first loved us in His Mysteries. By reading the Gospel with the continual act of Love: “Jesus I love you,” Thérèse becomes contemporary with all these Mysteries. This is the theological charity by which the Holy Spirit draws her out of herself to enter into the Heart of Jesus. It is the “ecstatic” character of Love according to Dionysius the Areopagite (agapè and eros).
Thérèse’s Christocentric mysticism is characterised by this dual Eucharistic and Marian thread, stemming from the two fundamental experiences of her childhood: the “smile of Mary” (Ms A, 29v-30v) and her First Communion followed by Consecration to Mary (Ms A, 34rv). Living the Eucharist with Mary and in the Church, she experiences Communion as the most intimate union between the Bridegroom and His Bride (PN 33, stanza 3), between the Child and His Mother by communing with Mary in the Mystery of the Incarnation. Thus, in her great Marian poem Why I Love You, O Mary (Appendix 5), after contemplating the Incarnation of the Son at the moment of the Annunciation, she identifies with Mary through Eucharistic communion:
“O beloved Mother, despite my littleness
Like you, I possess within me The Almighty
Yet I do not tremble seeing my weakness:
The mother’s treasure belongs to the child
And I am your child, O my beloved Mother
Your virtues, your love, are they not mine?
Thus, when in my heart descends the white Host
Jesus, your Sweet Lamb, believes He rests in you!” (PN 54, stanza 5).
Contrary to the common opinion of her time, Thérèse was aware that she continually retained within herself the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, as “her favourite ciborium,” her “living sanctuary” (PN 24, stanzas 29–30) and her Living Tabernacle. Suffering from not being able to receive Communion every day, she says to Jesus in her Offering to Merciful Love: “Remain in me as in the Tabernacle.” She interpreted realistically the words of Jesus: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains (menei) in me and I in him” (Jn 6:56), without imagining a miraculous permanence of the Eucharistic species in her body (as was a common opinion among her sisters). The “accidents” of bread and wine are the veil of faith covering the “substance” of the Body and Blood of Jesus. After Communion, when this veil disappears, the substance of the Body of Jesus remains, which has incorporated itself into us and has incorporated us into Him in this intimate and immediate union of charity, the same on earth as in Heaven[17].
The poem Why I Love You, O Mary! is Thérèse’s last poem and the synthesis of her Marian spirituality. It rests entirely on the text of the Gospel, rereading all passages where Mary is present, continuously repeating the act of love: “I love you, O Mary!” Through Mary, this act of Love is always addressed to Jesus, to Jesus through Mary.
To the preachers of her time who spoke of Mary’s greatness and privileges in an inaccurate and triumphalist way, she recalls the principal privilege of Mary in her earthly life: the privilege of littleness and poverty. Mary is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven because she is the smallest (cf. Mt 18:4). It is in the extreme poverty of Jesus’ birth that Thérèse contemplates the true greatness of the Mother of God and the divine greatness of her Child in the extreme littleness of the Incarnation:
“Later in Bethlehem, O Joseph and Mary!
I see you rejected by all the inhabitants
No one will receive poor strangers in their inn,
The place is for the great…
The place is for the great, and it is in a stable
That the Queen of Heaven must give birth to a God.
O my beloved Mother, how I find you lovely
How I find you great in such a poor place!…
When I see the Eternal wrapped in swaddling clothes
When from the Divine Word I hear the weak cry
O my beloved Mother, I envy no longer the angels
For their Mighty Lord is my beloved Brother!…
How I love you, Mary, you who on our shores
Have made this Divine Flower bloom!……
How I love you, listening to the shepherds and the Magi
And carefully keeping all things in your heart!” (PN 54, stanzas 9–10).
At the same time, Thérèse wrote the moving account of her great “trial of faith,” which makes her fraternally close to all the atheists of the modern world whom she calls “my brothers” (Ms C, 4v–7v). Without ever consenting to doubt, she believes heroically while always walking with Mary in the greatest darkness of faith: “Mother, your sweet Child wants you to be the example / Of the soul that seeks Him in the night of Faith” (stanza 15). Whereas the apocrypha fill Mary’s life with extraordinary and miraculous events, our Gospels reveal a very simple life:
“I know that in Nazareth, Mother full of graces
You lived very poorly, wanting nothing more
No raptures, no miracles, no ecstasies
Adorn your life, O Queen of the Elect!…
The number of the little ones is indeed great on earth
They can without trembling lift their eyes to you
It is by the common path, incomparable Mother
That it pleases you to walk to guide them to Heaven” (Stanza 17).
Daughter and disciple of St. John of the Cross, Thérèse relativises all those mystical phenomena absent from her own life. Mary was the first to follow this “common way,” the “little way” accessible to all the small. Mary shares with the entire Church the perfection of her Faith, Hope, and Love, and in this she is imitable by all.
Thus, Thérèse journeys with Mary from the Crib to the Cross, the culminating moment of her Faith, in full participation in the Redemptive Sacrifice of her Son. It is there that Mary inspires in her the most beautiful definition of Love (emphasised by Thérèse herself): “To love is to give everything and to give oneself” (Stanza 22).
Her Offering to Merciful Love as a Holocaust Victim is precisely the total gift (holos) of herself to the Fire of the Spirit of Love that consumed on the Cross the Sacrifice of the one Redeemer. She “abandons her offering” to Mary, exactly as St. Louis-Marie did in his Consecration to Jesus through Mary, with the other biblical symbol of the “Slavery of Love,” in reference to Jesus who took the condition of a servant even to the death of the Cross (cf. Ph 2:7–8). This total self-giving opens our heart to the abundance of God’s Gift, that is, to this new intensity of the life of faith, hope, and love, which is the essence of the mystical life, independently of any extraordinary phenomenon. Pope Francis expresses this most clearly:
“At the end of The Story of a Soul, Thérèse offers us her Offering as a Holocaust Victim to the Merciful Love of the Good God (Pri 6). By giving herself entirely to the action of the Spirit, she receives, without noise or particular signs, the superabundance of the living water: ‘The rivers, or rather the oceans of graces that came to flood my soul…’ (Ms A, 84r). This is the mystical life, which, even when devoid of extraordinary phenomena, is proposed to all the faithful as a daily experience of love” (C’est la confiance, n. 35).
Finally, on the delicate question of the cooperation of Mary and the Church in the Mystery of Redemption, Thérèse offers profound insight in two texts: first, her account of the salvation of the criminal Pranzini, her “first child” (Manuscript A, 45v–46v), and second, her play on the Flight into Egypt (RP 6). At age fourteen, before entering Carmel, in the Eucharistic context of the Sunday Mass, Thérèse was struck by an image of the Crucified Jesus and resolved to place herself spiritually at the foot of the Cross, to collect the Blood of Jesus and communicate it to souls most in need—sinners in the greatest danger, that of eternal damnation, who refuse the Redeemer’s Mercy to the end.
When Thérèse made this resolution, Jesus spoke to her the same words he had addressed to Mary: “Woman, behold your son” (cf. Jn 19:26). He pointed out this “first child” without extraordinary revelation, simply through the newspapers reporting on Pranzini, this “monster” who had murdered two women and a little girl, condemned to death and unrepentant. For him, Thérèse had Masses celebrated to bring him into contact with the Blood of Jesus, wanting “at all costs to prevent him from falling into hell.” She hoped for his salvation with absolute trust, confident that he would be saved, even without confession and without any sign of repentance, giving as her reason: “So great was my confidence in the Infinite Mercy of Jesus.” All salvation is contained in the Blood of Jesus; no one can add anything to it—neither Thérèse, nor Mary, nor the Church. The loving cooperation of Mary and the Church, as Mother and Spouse, is precisely this “mediation” between the Redeemer and the sinner redeemed by his blood: “It was a true exchange of Love; to souls I gave the Blood of Jesus, to Jesus I offered those same souls refreshed by his divine dew.”
The Marian dimension of this first and fundamental experience of spiritual maternity is made explicit by Thérèse in her play on the Flight into Egypt, in the dialogue between Mary and Susanna, wife of the chief of bandits and mother of the little Dimas who would become the Good Thief of the Gospel. The words Thérèse attributes to Mary correspond exactly to her account of Pranzini’s salvation:
“Undoubtedly, those you love will offend the God who has showered them with blessings; yet have confidence in the infinite mercy of the Good God; it is great enough to erase the greatest crimes when it finds a mother’s heart that places all its trust in Him. Jesus does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should convert and live eternally. This child, who without effort has just healed your son of leprosy, will one day heal him of a far more dangerous leprosy… Then a simple bath will no longer suffice; Dimas will need to be washed in the Blood of the Redeemer… Jesus will die to give life to Dimas, and he will enter on the same day as the Son of God into His Heavenly Kingdom” (RP 6, 10r).
One can admire the theological precision of this text. It is Jesus alone who saves. The Child Jesus who healed little Dimas of leprosy by a simple bath will later heal him of the leprosy of sin by washing him in His Blood. While some popular depictions presented Mary as more merciful than Jesus, Thérèse presents her as the Mother who intercedes with her Son in complete trust in His Infinite Mercy, entirely contained in His Redeeming Blood.
St. John Bosco and the Salesian Family
The same Eucharistic and Marian spirituality found one of its highest expressions in St. John Bosco and in his Salesian family. For him, Jesus in the Eucharist and the Immaculate Mary are like the “two columns” of the Church in the storm. Pope Francis had reminded the Salesians in Turin of his teaching on the “three white loves” (better than “the three whitenesses”), which are Jesus in the Eucharist, Mary, and the Pope, a simple and popular expression of the Love of Jesus, of Mary, and of the Church, intended to animate the faithful.
More recently, this Eucharistic and Marian spirituality has been lived and deepened by two spiritual daughters of Don Bosco on the path to beatification: the Servant of God Vera Grita, Salesian Cooperator (1923–1969), and the Servant of God Rosetta Marchese, Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (1922–1984). Without knowing each other, they lived the same experience of being “Living Tabernacles”, keeping within themselves the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus in order to radiate it mysteriously at the heart of the world, from a profoundly missionary perspective[18]. Their testimony is important for the Salesian family and for the whole Church, to live ever more deeply with Mary the Eucharist as the great Sacrament of the Love of Jesus at the Heart of his Church, and to recover the full importance and value of daily Communion and Eucharistic Adoration.
Conclusion
At the end of this journey, we can cite St. Paul VI at the close of the General Audience of 27 May 1964, during the Council:
“We conclude by engraving in our hearts the conviction that Mary and the Church are realities essentially grafted into the design of salvation offered to us by the sole principle of grace and by the sole mediator between God and man, who is Christ; essentially! And that he who loves Mary must love the Church; just as he who wishes to love the Church must love the Virgin Mary. To know how to unite in our devotion, while respecting all proportions and all differences, Mary and the Church, that is the memory of this audience, and may our apostolic blessing confirm it.”
Lisieux, 14 November 2025
on the feast of all the Saints of Carmel
François-Marie Léthel OCD
Member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology
Consultor of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
Appendix 1
LETTER OF JOHN PAUL II
TO THE MONTFORT RELIGIOUS FAMILY
To the Men and Women Religious
of the Montfort Families
A classical text of Marian spirituality
1. A work destined to become a classic of Marian spirituality was published 160 years ago. St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin at the beginning of the 1700s, but the manuscript remained practically unknown for more than a century. When, almost by chance, it was at last discovered in 1842 and published in 1843, the work was an instant success, proving extraordinarily effective in spreading the “true devotion” to the Most Holy Virgin. I myself, in the years of my youth, found reading this book a great help. “There I found the answers to my questions”, for at one point I had feared that if my devotion to Mary “became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ” (Dono e Mistero, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1996; English edition: Gift and Mystery, Paulines Publications Africa, p. 42). Under the wise guidance of St Louis Marie, I realized that if one lives the mystery of Mary in Christ this risk does not exist. In fact, this Saint’s Mariological thought “is rooted in the mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the Word of God” (ibid.).
Since she came into being, and especially in her most difficult moments, the Church has contemplated with special intensity an event of the Passion of Jesus Christ that St John mentions: “Standing by the Cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!’. Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!’. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (Jn 19: 25-27). Throughout its history, the People of God has experienced this gift of the crucified Jesus: the gift of his Mother. Mary Most Holy is truly our Mother who accompanies us on our pilgrimage of faith, hope and charity towards an ever more intense union with Christ, the one Saviour and Mediator of salvation (cf. ConstitutionLumen Gentium, nn. 60, 62).
As is well known, my episcopal coat of arms symbolically illustrates the Gospel text quoted above; the motto Totus tuus is inspired by the teaching of St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort (cf. Gift and Mystery, pp. 42-43; Rosarium Virginis Mariae, n. 15). These two words express total belonging to Jesus through Mary: “Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt”, St Louis Marie wrote, and he translates his words: “I am all yours, and all that I have is yours, O most loving Jesus, through Mary, your most holy Mother” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 233). This Saint’s teaching has had a profound influence on the Marian devotion of many of the faithful and on my own life. It is a lived teaching of outstanding ascetic and mystical depth, expressed in a lively and passionate style that makes frequent use of images and symbols. However, the considerable development of Marian theology since St Louis Marie’s time is largely due to the crucial contribution made by the Second Vatican Council. The Montfort teaching, therefore, which has retained its essential validity should be reread and reinterpreted today in the light of the Council.
In this Letter I would like to share with you, Men and Women Religious of the Montfort Families, a meditation on certain passages from the writings of St Louis Marie that may help us in these difficult times to nourish our faith in the maternal mediation of the Mother of the Lord.
“Ad Iesum per Mariam” To Jesus through Mary
2. St Louis Marie proposes the loving contemplation of the mystery of the Incarnation with unusual effectiveness. Authentic Marian devotion is Christocentric. Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council recalled, “Devoutly meditating on her [Mary] and contemplating her in the light of the Word made man, the Church reverently penetrates more deeply into the great mystery of the Incarnation” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, n. 65).
The love of God through union with Jesus Christ is the purpose of every genuine devotion, since Christ, as St Louis Marie wrote, “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 be united; 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 whom we must believe; our only Life who can animate us; and our only All in all things who can satisfy us” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 61).
3. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a privileged means “of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving him tenderly, of serving him faithfully” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 62). St Louis immediately expands this central desire to “love tenderly” into a passionate prayer to Jesus, imploring him for the grace to participate in the indescribable communion of love that exists between him and his Mother.
Mary’s total relativity to Christ and through him, to the Blessed Trinity, is first experienced in the observation: “You never think of Mary without Mary interceding for you with God. You never praise or honour Mary without Mary’s praising and honouring God with you. Mary is altogether relative to God; and indeed, I might well call her the relation to God. She only exists with reference to God. She is the echo of God that says nothing, repeats nothing, but God. If you say “Mary’, she says “God’. St Elizabeth praised Mary and called her blessed because she had believed. Mary, the faithful echo of God, at once intoned: “Magnificat anima mea Dominum’; “My soul magnifies the Lord’ (Lk 1: 46). What Mary did then, she does daily now. When we praise her, love her, honour her or give anything to her, it is God who is praised, God who is loved, God who is glorified, and it is to God that we give, through Mary and in Mary” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 225).
Again, in prayer to the Mother of the Lord, St Louis Marie expresses the Trinitarian dimension of his relationship with God: “Hail Mary, beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father! Hail Mary, admirable Mother of the Son! Hail Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit!” (The Secret of Mary, p. 71). Although this traditional greeting used earlier by St Francis of Assisi (cf. Fonti Francescane, 281) contains different levels of analogies, there is not a shadow of doubt that it expresses effectively Our Lady’s special participation in the life of the Most Holy Trinity.
4. St Louis Marie contemplates all the mysteries, starting from the Incarnation which was brought about at the moment of the Annunciation. Thus, in the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Mary appears as “the true terrestrial paradise of the New Adam”, the “virginal and immaculate earth” of which he was formed (n. 261). She is also the New Eve, associated with the New Adam in the obedience that atones for the original disobedience of the man and the woman (cf. ibid., n. 53; St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, 21, 10-22, 4). Through this obedience, the Son of God enters the world. The Cross itself is already mysteriously present at the instant of the Incarnation, at the very moment of Jesus’ conception in Mary’s womb. Indeed, the ecce venio in the Letter to the Hebrews (cf. 10: 5-9) is the primordial act of the Son’s obedience to the Father, an acceptance of his redeeming sacrifice already at the time “when Christ came into the world”.
“All our perfection“, St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort writes, “consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore, the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now, Mary being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that, of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to Our Lord is devotion to his holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 120). In addressing Jesus, St Louis Marie expresses the marvel of the union between the Son and the Mother: “She is so transformed into you by grace that she lives no more, she is as though she were not. It is you only, my Jesus, who lives and reigns in her…. Ah! If we knew the glory and the love which you receive in this admirable creature…. She is so intimately united with you…. She loves you more ardently and glorifies you more perfectly than all the other creatures put together” (ibid., n. 63).
Mary, an eminent member of the Mystical Body and Mother of the Church
5. According to the words of the Second Vatican Council, Mary “is hailed as pre-eminent and as a wholly unique member of the Church, and as her type and outstanding model in faith and charity” (Lumen Gentium, n. 53). The Mother of the Redeemer is also uniquely redeemed by him in her Immaculate Conception and has preceded us in that perseverance in faithful and loving attention to the Word of God that leads to blessedness (cf. ibid., n. 58). For this reason too, Mary “is also intimately united to the Church. As St Ambrose taught, the Mother of God is a type (typus) of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ. For in the mystery of the Church, which is herself rightly called mother and virgin, the Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and singular fashion as exemplar both of virgin and mother” (ibid., n. 63). The Council itself contemplates Mary as “the Mother of the members of Christ” (cf. ibid., nn. 53, 62), and consequently, Paul VI proclaimed her as Mother of the Church. The doctrine of the Mystical Body that most forcefully expresses Christ’s union with the Church is also the biblical foundation of this affirmation. “The head and the members are born of one and the same Mother” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 32), as St Louis Marie reminds us. In this sense, we can say that, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the members are united and conformed to Christ the Head, the Son of the Father and of Mary, in such a way that “a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his Mother” (The Secret of Mary, n. 11).
In Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, we are truly children of the Father, and at the same time, sons and daughters of Mary and of the Church. In a certain way, it is the whole of humanity that is reborn in the virgin birth of Jesus. “These words can be attributed better to the Mother of the Lord than to St Paul of himself: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!’ (Gal 4: 19). Every day I give birth to the children of God until Jesus Christ my Son be formed in them in the fullness of his age” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 33). This doctrine is expressed most beautifully in the prayer: “O Holy Spirit, give me great devotion to Mary, your faithful spouse; give me great confidence in her maternal heart and an abiding refuge in her mercy, so that by her you may truly form in me Jesus Christ” (The Secret of Mary, p. 81).
One of the loftiest expressions of St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort’s spirituality refers to the identification of the faithful with Mary in her love for Jesus and in her service to Jesus. Meditating on St Ambrose’s well-known text: “Let the soul of Mary be in each of us to magnify the Lord, and the spirit of Mary be in each of us to rejoice in God” (Expos. in Luc., 12, 26: PL 15, 1561), he writes: “A soul is happy indeed when… it is all possessed and overruled by the spirit of Mary, a spirit meek and strong, zealous and prudent, humble and courageous, pure and fruitful” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 258). Mystical identification with Mary is fully directed to Jesus, as he says in the prayer: “Finally, dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I may have no other spirit but yours, to know Jesus and his divine will; that I may have no other soul but yours, to praise and glorify the Lord; that I may have no other heart but yours, to love God with a love as pure and ardent as yours” (The Secret of Mary, pp. 71-72).
Holiness, the perfection of charity
6. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentiumstates: “But while in the Most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5: 27), the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues” (n. 65). Holiness is the perfection of charity, of love of God and neighbour that is the object of Jesus’ greatest Commandment (cf. Mt 22: 38). It is also the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. I Cor 13: 13). Thus, in his Canticles St Louis Marie presents to the faithful in this order the excellence of charity (Canticle 5), the light of faith (Canticle 6) and the firmness of hope (Canticle 7).
In Montfort spirituality, the dynamism of charity is expressed in particular by the symbol of the slavery of love to Jesus, after the example and with the motherly help of Mary. It is a matter of full communion in the kenosis of Christ, communion lived with Mary, intimately present in the mysteries of the life of her Son. “There is nothing among Christians which makes 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 the status of a servant for love of us” – formam servi accipiens – “and also according to the example of the holy Virgin who called herself the servant and handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1: 38). The Apostle refers to himself as “the slave of Christ’ (servus Christi) as though the title were an honour. Christians are often so called in the Holy Scriptures” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 72). Indeed, the Son of God, who came into the world out of obedience to the Father in the Incarnation (cf. Heb 10: 7), subsequently humbled himself by making himself obedient unto death, and death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2: 7-8). Mary responded to God’s will with the total gift of herself, body and soul, forever, from the Annunciation to the Cross and from the Cross to the Assumption. The obedience of Christ and the obedience of Mary are not, of course, symmetrical because of the ontological difference between the divine Person of the Son and the human person of Mary. This also explains the resulting exclusivity of the fundamental salvific efficacy of obedience to Christ, from whom his own Mother received the grace to be able to obey God totally and thus collaborate in the mission of her Son.
The slavery of love should therefore be interpreted in light of the wonderful exchange between God and humanity in the mystery of the incarnate Word. It is a true exchange of love between God and his creature in the reciprocity of total self-giving. The “spirit [of this devotion] consists in this: that we be interiorly dependent on Mary Most Holy; that we be slaves of Mary, and through her, of Jesus” (The Secret of Mary, n. 44). Paradoxically, this “bond of charity”, this “slavery of love”, endows the human being with full freedom, with that true freedom of the children of God (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 169). It is a question of giving oneself to Jesus without reserve, responding to the Love with which he first loved us. Those who live in this love can say with St Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2: 20).
The “pilgrimage of faith’
7. I wrote in Novo Millennio Ineunte: “One can never really reach Jesus except by the path of faith” (n. 19). This was the path that Mary followed throughout her earthly life and it is the path of the pilgrim Church until the end of time. The Second Vatican Council placed great emphasis on Mary’s faith, mysteriously shared by the Church, shedding light on the journey of Our Lady from the moment of the Annunciation to the moment of the redemptive Passion (cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, nn. 57, 67; Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater, nn. 25-27).
In the writings of St Louis Marie we find the same accent on the faith lived by the Mother of Jesus in her journey from the Incarnation to the Cross, a faith in which Mary is the model and type of the Church. St Louis Marie expresses this with a range of nuances, when in his letter he expounds on the “marvellous effects” of perfect Marian devotion: “The more, then, that you gain the favour of that august Princess and faithful Virgin, the more will you act by pure faith; a pure faith which will put you above all sensible consolations and extraordinary favours; a lively faith animated by charity, which will enable you to perform all your actions from the motive of pure love; a faith firm and immovable as a rock, through which you will rest quiet and constant in the midst of storms and hurricanes; a faith active and piercing, which like a mysterious skeleton key, will give you entrance into all the mysteries of Jesus, the ultimate goal of man, and into the heart of God himself; a courageous faith, which will enable you to undertake and carry out without hesitation great things for God and for the salvation of souls; lastly, a faith which will be your blazing torch, your divine life, your hidden treasure of divine wisdom and your omnipotent arms, which you will use to enlighten those who are in the darkness of the shadow of death, to inflame those who are lukewarm and who have need of the heated gold of charity, to give life to those who are dead through sin, to touch and move by your meek and powerful words the hearts of stone and the cedars of Lebanon, and finally, to resist the devil and all the enemies of salvation” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 214).
Like St John of the Cross, St Louis Marie insists above all on the purity of faith and its essential and often sorrowful darkness (cf. The Secret of Mary, nn. 51-52). Contemplative faith, by giving up tangible or extraordinary things, penetrates the mysterious depths of Christ. Thus, in his prayer, St Louis Marie addresses the Mother of the Lord saying: “I do not ask you for visions, revelations, sensible devotion or spiritual pleasures…. Here below, I wish for nothing other than that which was yours: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures” (ibid., p. 72). The Cross is the crowning moment of Mary’s faith, as I wrote in the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater: “Through this faith Mary is perfectly united with Christ in his self-emptying…. This is perhaps the deepest kenosis of faith in human history” (n. 18).
A sign of sure hope
8. The Holy Spirit invites Mary to reproduce her own virtues in the elect, extending in them the roots of her “invincible faith” and “firm hope” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 34). The Second Vatican Council recalled this: “The Mother of Jesus in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise, she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God” (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 68). This eschatological dimension is contemplated by St Louis Marie especially when he speaks of the “apostles of the latter times” formed by the Blessed Virgin to bring to the Church Christ’s victory over the forces of evil (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, nn. 49-59). This is in no way a form of “millenarianism”, but a deep sense of the eschatological character of the Church linked to the oneness and saving universality of Jesus Christ. The Church awaits the glorious coming of Jesus at the end of time. Like Mary and with Mary, the saints are in the Church and for the Church to make her holiness shine out and to extend to the very ends of the earth and the end of time the work of Christ, the one Saviour.
In the antiphon Salve Regina, the Church calls the Mother of God “our Hope”. The same term is used by St Louis Marie who took it from a text of St John Damascene, who applies to Mary the biblical symbol of the anchor (cf. Hom I in Dorm. B.V.M., 14: PG 96, 719): “”We fasten our souls'”, he says, “”to your hope, as to an abiding anchor’. It is to her that the saints who have saved themselves have been the most attached and have done their best to attach others, in order to persevere in virtue. Happy, then, a thousand times happy, are the Christians who are now fastened faithfully and entirely to her, as to a firm anchor!” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 175). Through the devotion to Mary, Jesus himself “enlarges the heart with firm confidence in God, making it look upon him as a Father” (ibid., n. 169).
Together with the Blessed Virgin and with the same maternal heart, the Church prays, hopes and intercedes for the salvation of all men and women. The Dogmatic ConstitutionLumen Gentiumconcludes with these words: “The entire body of the faithful pours forth urgent supplications to the Mother of God and of men that she, who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers, may now, exalted as she is above all the angels and saints, intercede before her Son in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of people, whether they are honoured with the title of Christian or whether they still do not know the Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity” (n. 69).
As I once again make my own this hope which I expressed, along with the other Council Fathers almost 40 years ago, I send to the entire Montfort Family a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2003, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
JOHN PAUL II
Appendix 2
ST. ANSELM
ORATIO AD SANCTAM MARIAM
PRO IMPETRANDO EIUS ET CHRISTI AMORE
Prayer to Saint Mary to obtain the Love of Christ and of Herself
(Oratio VII, written around 1072)
[Introduction: The greatness of Mary in the Mystery of Jesus, the Son of God who became her Son in the Incarnation. To know better in order to love more Jesus and Mary]
| MARIA, tu illa magna MARIA, tu illa maior beatarum MARIARUM, tu illa maxima feminarum: te, domina magna et valde magna, te vult cor meum amare, te cupit os meum laudare, te desiderat venerari mens mea, te affectat exorare anima mea, quia tuitioni tuae se commendat tota substantia mea. Enitimini, viscera animae meae, enitimini quantum potestis–si quid potestis–omnia interiora mea, ut eius merita laudetis, ut eius beatitudinem ametis, ut eius celsitudinem admiremini, ut eius benignitatem deprecemini, cuius patrocinio cotidie indigetis, indigendo desideratis, desiderando imploratis, implorando impetratis, et si non secundum desiderium vestrum, tamen supra vel certe contra meritum vestrum. Regina angelorum, domina mundi, mater eius qui mundat mundum, confiteor quia cor meum nimis est immundum, ut merito erubescat in tam mundam intendere nec digne possit tam mundam intendendo contingere. Te igitur, mater illuminationis cordis mei, te nutrix salutis mentis meae, te obsecrant quantum possunt cuncta praecordia mea. Exaudi, domina, adesto propitia, adiuva potentissima, ut mundentur sordes mentis meae, ut illuminentur tenebrae meae, ut accendatur tepor meus, ut expergiscatur torpor meus, quatenus sicut tua beata sanctitas super omnia post summum omnium, filium tuum, per omnipotentem filium tuum, ob gloriosum filium tuum, a benedicto filio tuo est exaltata: sic super omnia post dominum et deum meum et omnium, filium tuum, te cor meum intelligat et veneretur, amet et deprecetur eo affectu, non quo desidero imperfectus, sed quo debet a filio tuo factus et salvatus, redemptus et resuscitatus | MARY, you Mary the great, you the greatest of all holy Maries, you the greatest of all women; Our Lady, great and most great, my heart longs to love you, my mouth longs to praise you, my mind desires to venerate you, my soul aspires to pray to you, for all my being commends itself to your protection. Make effort, inmost parts of my soul, make effort as much as you are able, if indeed anything is within your power, intimate regions of myself, to praise the merits, to love the felicity, to admire the greatness, to entreat the goodness of her whose patronage you daily need; necessary, you desire it, desired, you implore it, implored, you shall obtain it, if not according to your wishes, then above them, or rather, beyond your merits. Queen of angels, Sovereign of the world, Mother of the One who purifies the world, I confess that my heart is too impure, so much so that it is ashamed to turn to you who are so pure, so pure that my heart is truly unworthy to approach you. You, the Mother of the enlightenment of my heart, you, the nurturer of the salvation of my mind, all that is in me implores you as much as it can. O Our Lady, hear me, be gracious; O most powerful, come to my aid that the defilements of my mind may be purified, my darkness illuminated, my tepidity inflamed, my torpor shaken. Just as your blessed holiness was, through your blessed Son, exalted above all after your Son who is above all, by your almighty Son, for your glorious Son; so also, above all after the Lord my God and Master of all, your Son, may my heart know you, venerate you, love you, and pray to you, not with my imperfect desires, but with the love due to one who, through your Son, has been made and saved, redeemed and resurrected. |
[FIRST PART: KNOWLEDGE OF THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD AND THE DIVINE MOTHERHOOD OF MARY]
[— With regard to the man saved by Christ “Magna”]
| Genitrix vitae animae meae, altrix reparatoris carnis meae, lactatrix salvatoris totius substantiae meae! Sed quid dicam? Lingua mihi deficit, quia mens non sufficit. Domina, domina, omnia intima mea sollicita sunt, ut tantorum beneficiorum tibi gratias exsolvant, sed nec cogitare possunt dignas, et pudet proferre non dignas. Quid enim digne dicam matri creatoris et salvatoris mei, per cuius sanctitatem peccata mea purgantur, per cuius integritatem mihi incorruptibilitas donatur, per cuius virginitatem anima mea adamatur a domino suo et desponsatur deo suo? Quid, inquam, digne referam genitrici dei et domini mei, per cuius foecunditatem captivus sum redemptus, per cuius partum de morte aeterna sum exemptus, per cuius prolem perditus sum restitutus et de exilio miseriae in patriam beatitudinis reductus? “Benedicta” “in mulieribus”, haec omnia mihi dedit “benedictus fructus ventris tui” in regeneratione baptismatis sui, alia in spe, alia in re; quamquam haec omnia ego ipse mihi sic peccando abstulerim, ut nec rem habeam et spem vix teneam. Quid enim? Si mea culpa evanuerunt, numquid ingratus ero illi, per quam mihi tanta bona gratis evenerunt? Absit, ne addam hanc iniquitatem super iniquitatem. Immo gratias ago quia habui, doleo quia non habeo, oro ut habeam. Certus enim sum quia sicut per filii gratiam ea potui accipere: sic eadem per matris merita possum recipere. Ergo domina, porta vitae, ianua salutis, via reconciliationis, aditus recuperationis, obsecro te per salvatricem tuam foecunditatem, fac ut et peccatorum meorum mihi venia et bene vivendi gratia concedatur, et usque in finem hic servus tuus sub tua protectione custodiatur. | Mother of the life of my soul, nourisher of the restorer of my flesh, you have nursed the Saviour of my whole being! But what shall I say? My tongue fails, for my mind is inadequate. Our Lady, O Our Lady, all that is most intimate within me longs to give you thanks for so many blessings, yet being unable even to conceive of those that are worthy, it is ashamed to speak those that are unworthy. Indeed, what can I say worthily to the Mother of my Creator and Saviour, when by her holiness my sins are purified; by her integrity, incorruptibility is given to me; by her virginity, my soul is loved by its Lord and espoused by its God? What can I say worthily to the Mother of my God and Lord, when by her fruitfulness I have become, from captive, a redeemed one; by her childbearing, I have been freed from eternal death; by her child, I have been saved, I who was lost, and brought back from the exile of misery to the homeland of happiness?“Blessed among women,” all this is given to me by “the blessed fruit of your womb” in the new birth of baptism, partly in hope, partly in reality; yet, by my sin, I have deprived myself of all this, to the point of losing the reality and almost the hope. But what then? If it is through my faults that these gifts have vanished, shall I therefore be ungrateful to the one from whom so many blessings came to me freely? God forbid that I add this iniquity to all the others! On the contrary, I give thanks for having received these gifts, I lament that I no longer possess them, I pray to receive them again. For I am certain that just as by the grace of the Son I was able to receive them, so too, by the merits of the Mother, I can recover them. Therefore, O Our Lady, gate of Life, gate of salvation, way of reconciliation, path of renewal, I pray to you by your salvific fruitfulness: grant me the pardon of my sins and the grace of a good life, and may your servant be kept under your protection until the end. |
[— Par rapport à toute la création restaurée dans le Christ “Maior”]
| Aula universalis propitiationis, causa generalis reconciliationis, vas et templum vitae et salutis universorum, nimium contraho merita tua, cum in me homunculo vili singulariter recenseo beneficia tua, quae mundus amans gaudet, gaudens clamat esse sua. Tu namque, domina admirabilis singulari virginitate, amabilis salutari foecunditate, venerabilis inaestimabili sanctitate, tu ostendisti mundo dominum suum et deum suum quem nesciebat, tu visibilem exhibuisti mundo creatorem suum quem prius non videbat, tu genuisti mundo restauratorem quo perditus indigebat, tu peperisti mundo reconciliatorem quem reus non habebat. Per foecunditatem tuam, domina, mundus peccator est iustificatus, damnatus salvatus, exul reductus. Partus tuus, domina, mundum captivum redemit, aegrum sanavit, mortuum resuscitavit. Insidiis et oppressionibus daemonum tenebris obvolutus mundus subiacebat, sed sole de te orto illuminatus eorum et laqueos devitat et vires conculcat. Caelum, sidera, terra, flumina, dies, nox et quaecumque humanae potestati vel utilitati sunt obnoxia: in amissum decus sese gratulantur, domina, per te quodam modo resuscitata, et nova quadam ineffabili gratia donata. Quasi enim omnia mortua erant: cum amissa congenita dignitate favendi dominatui vel usibus deum laudantium, ad quod facta erant, obruebantur oppressione et decolorabantur ab usu idolis servientium, propter quos facta non erant. Quasi vero eadem resuscitata laetantur: cum iam deum confitentium et dominatu reguntur et usu decorantur. Nova autem et inaestimabili gratia quasi exultaverunt: cum ipsum deum, ipsum creatorem suum non solum invisibiliter supra se illa regentem senserunt, sed etiam visibiliter intra se eisdem utendo sanctificantem viderunt. Haec tanta bona per benedictum fructum benedicti ventris benedictae MARIAE mundo provenerunt. Sed cur solum loquor, domina, beneficiis tuis plenum esse mundum? Inferna penetrant, caelos superant. Per plenitudinem enim gratiae tuae et quae in inferno erant se laetantur liberata, et quae supra mundum sunt se gaudent restaurata. Per eundem quippe gloriosum filium gloriosae virginitatis tuae, omnes iusti qui obierunt ante vitalem eius mortem exultant diruptione captivitatis suae, et angeli gratulantur restitutione semirutae civitatis suae. O femina mirabiliter singularis et singulariter mirabilis, per quam elementa renovantur, inferna remediantur, daemones conculcantur, homines salvantur, angeli redintegrantur! O femina plena et superplena gratia, de cuius plenitudinis exundantia respersa sic revirescit omnis creatura! O virgo benedicta et superbenedicta, per cuius benedictionem benedicitur omnis natura, non solum creata a creatore, sed et creator a creatura! O nimis exaltata, quam sequi conatur affectus animae meae, quo aufugis aciem mentis meae? O pulchra ad intuendum, amabilis ad contemplandum, delectabilis ad amandum, quo evadis capacitatem cordis mei? Praestolare, domina, infirmam animam te sequentem. Ne abscondas te, domina, parum videnti animae te quaerenti. Miserare, domina, animam post te anhelando languentem. | Sanctuary of universal propitiation, cause of general reconciliation, receptacle and temple of the life and salvation of all, I limit far too much your merits by considering your blessings only in relation to me, a small and vile man, whereas the whole world rejoices in them with love, and in its joy proclaims that all these blessings are for it. For you, Our Lady, admirable through a singular virginity, lovable through a salutary fruitfulness, venerable through an inestimable holiness, have shown the world its Lord and its God whom it did not know, have made visible to the world its Creator whom it had not previously seen; for the lost world you have begotten the restorer it needed, for the guilty world you have borne the reconciler it lacked. Through your fruitfulness, Our Lady, the sinful world has been justified; condemned, it has been saved; exiled, it has been restored. Your childbearing, Our Lady, has redeemed the world while it was captive, healed it while it was sick, raised it while it was dead. The world lay in darkness among snares and under the oppression of demons; but now, through the Sun that has risen from you, it thwarts their traps and tramples upon their power. Heaven, the stars, the earth, the rivers, day, night, and all that obeys or serves man, rejoice, O Our Lady, in being in some way resurrected by you to their lost beauty, and even in being endowed with a new and ineffable grace. All, indeed, were as if dead, for having lost their natural dignity of being in authority or in service to those who praise God (for which they had been made), they were oppressed and degraded by idolatrous worship (for which they had not been made). Being all as if resurrected, they are the same who now rejoice as they are subject to the power and beautified by the service of God’s worshippers. And even, by a new and ineffable grace, they have as it were exulted, since it is God himself, their Creator, whom they have no longer only perceived as above them and invisibly governing them, but have seen as among them, visibly sanctifying them through their service. And it is through the blessed fruit of the blessed womb of Mary, herself blessed, that these so great goods have come into the world. But why should I be content to say, O Our Lady, that the world is filled with your blessings? They penetrate even into hell, surpassing the heavens. Through the fullness of your grace, those beings who were in hell rejoice in being freed, and those above the world, in being restored. For it is by the same glorious Son of your glorious virginity that all the righteous who perished before his life-giving death exult to see the end of their captivity, and that the angels rejoice at the restoration of their half-destroyed city.O woman admirably singular and singularly admirable, through whom the elements are renewed, hells relieved, demons vanquished, men saved, angels completed! O woman full and more than full of grace, through your overflowing fullness all creation is rejuvenated. O blessed and more than blessed Virgin, through your blessing all nature is blessed, not only the nature created by the Creator, but the Creator through the creature! O you, supremely exalted, you whom the love of my soul strives to follow, where do you flee from the keen gaze of my mind? O beautiful to behold, lovely to contemplate, delightful to love, to what extent do you surpass the capacity of my heart? Wait, O Our Lady, for the weak soul that follows you! Do not hide, Our Lady, from the poorly seeing soul that seeks you. Have mercy, Our Lady, on a languishing soul that sighs for you. |
[— In relation to God Himself “Maxima”]
| Mira res, in quam sublimi contemplor MARIAM locatam! Nihil aequale MARIAE, nihil nisi deus maius MARIA. Deus filium suum, quem solum de corde suo aequalem sibi genitum tamquam se ipsum diligebat, ipsum dedit MARIAE, et ex MARIA fecit sibi filium, non alium, sed eundem ipsum, ut naturaliter esset unus idemque communis filius dei et MARIAE. Omnis natura a deo est creata, et deus ex MARIA est natus. Deus omnia creavit, et MARIA deum generavit. Deus qui omnia fecit: ipse se ex MARIA fecit, et sic omnia quae fecerat refecit. Qui potuit omnia de nihilo facere: noluit ea violata, nisi prius fieret MARIAE filius, reficere. Deus igitur est pater rerum creatarum, et MARIA mater rerum recreatarum. Deus est pater constitutionis omnium, et MARIA est mater restitutionis omnium. Deus enim genuit illum per quem omnia sunt facta, et MARIA peperit illum per quem cuncta sunt salvata. Deus genuit illum sine quo penitus nihil est, et MARIA peperit illum sine quo nihil omnino bene est. O vere »dominus tecum«, cui dedit dominus, ut omnis natura tantum tibi deberet secum. | O wonder, I contemplate Mary placed in such a sublime position! Nothing equals Mary, nothing, except God, greater than Mary. God gave to Mary His own Son, this Son equal to Himself, the only begotten of His heart whom He loved as Himself, and from Mary, He became a Son, not another, but absolutely the same, so that by nature He is one and the same Son, common to God and to Mary. All nature was created by God, and God was born of Mary; God created all, and Mary begot God. God, who made everything, made Himself of Mary, and thus He remade all that He had made. He who could make all from nothing did not wish to remake His profaned creation except by first becoming the Son of Mary. God is therefore the Father of created things, and Mary the Mother of recreated things. God is therefore the Father of the establishment of all, and Mary the Mother of the restoration of all. Indeed, God begot the One through whom all things were made, and Mary bore the One through whom all things were saved. God begot the One without whom absolutely nothing exists, and Mary bore the One without whom absolutely nothing exists well. O truly, “the Lord is with you,” for the Lord has granted that all nature owes so much to you, with Him. |
[SECOND PART: THE LOVE OF JESUS AND MARY]
| MARIA, obsecro te per gratiam qua sic dominus esse tecum et te voluit esse secum: fac propter ipsam, secundum eandem ipsam gratiam, misericordiam tuam mecum. Fac ut amor tui semper sit mecum, et cura mei semper sit tecum. Fac ut clamor necessitatis meae – quamdiu ipsa persistit – sit tecum, et respectus pietatis tuae – quamdiu ego subsisto – sit mecum. Fac ut congratulatio beatitudinis tuae semper sit mecum, et compassio miseriae meae – quantum mihi expedit – sit tecum. Sicut enim, o beatissima, omnis a te aversus et a te despectus necesse est ut intereat: ita omnis ad te conversus et a te respectus impossibile est ut pereat. Sicut enim, domina, deus genuit illum in quo omnia vivunt: sic o tu flos virginitatis, genuisti eum per quem mortua revivunt. Et sicut deus per filium suum beatos angelos a peccato servavit: ita, o tu decus puritatis, per filium tuum miseros homines ex peccato salvavit. Quemadmodum enim dei filius est beatitudo iustorum: sic, o tu salus foecunditatis, filius tuus est reconciliatio peccatorum. Non est enim reconciliatio nisi quam tu casta concepisti, non est iustificatio nisi quam tu integra in utero fovisti, non est salus nisi quam tu virgo peperisti. Ergo o domina, mater es iustificationis et iustificatorum, genitrix es reconciliationis et reconcialiatorum, parens es salutis et salvatorum. O beata fiducia, o tutum refugium! Mater dei est mater nostra. Mater eius, in quo solo speramus et quem solum timemus, est mater nostra. Mater, inquam, eius qui solus salvat, solus damnat, est mater nostra. Sed o benedicta et exaltata non tibi soli sed et nobis, quid est, quam magnum, quam amabile est quod video per te evenire nobis, quod videns gaudeo, quod gaudens dicere non audeo? Si enim tu, domina, es mater eius, nonne et alii filii tui sunt fratres eius? Sed qui fratres, et cuius eius? Loquar unde iucundatur cor meum, an silebo ne elatione arguatur os meum? Sed quod credo amando, cur non confiteor laudando? Dicam igitur, non superbiendo sed gratias agendo. Qui enim fecit ut ipse per maternam generationem esset naturae nostrae, et nos per vitae restitutionem essemus filii matris eius: ipse nos invitat ut confiteamur nos fratres eius. Ergo iudex noster est frater noster. Salvator mundi est frater noster. Denique deus noster est factus per MARIAM frater noster. Qua igitur certitudine debemus sperare, qua consolatione possumus timere, quorum sive salus sive damnatio de boni fratris et de piae matris pendet arbitrio? Quo etiam affectu hunc fratrem et hanc matrem amare debemus? Qua familiaritate nos illis committemus? Qua securitate ad illos confugiemus? Qua dulcedine fugientes suscipiemur? Bonus igitur frater nobis dimittat quod deliquimus, ipse avertat quod delinquentes meruimus, ipse donet quod paenitentes petimus. Bona mater oret et exoret pro nobis, ipsa postulet et impetret quod expedit nobis. Ipsa roget filium pro filiis, unigenitum pro adoptatis, dominum pro servis. Bonus filius audiat matrem pro fratribus, unigenitus pro iis quos adoptavit, dominus pro iis quos liberavit. MARIA, quantum tibi debemus! Domina mater, per quam talem fratrem habemus, quid gratiarum, quid laudis tibi retribuemus? Magne domine, tu noster maior frater, magna domina, tu nostra melior mater, docete cor meum qua reverentia vos debeat cogitare. Bone tu et bona tu, dulcis tu et dulcis tu, dicite et date animae meae, quo affectu vos memorando de vobis delectetur, delectando iucundetur, iucundando impinguetur. Impinguate et succendite eam vestra dilectione. Vestro continuo amore langueat cor meum, liquefiat anima mea, deficiat caro mea. Utinam sic viscera animae meae dulci fervore vestrae dilectionis exardescant, ut viscera carnis meae exarescant! Utinam sic intima spiritus mei dulcedine vestri affectus impinguentur, ut medullae corporis mei exsiccentur! Domine, fili dominae meae, domina, mater domini mei, si ego non sum dignus qui sic debeam vestro amore beatificari, certe vos non estis indigni qui sic, immo plus debeatis amari. Ergo benignissimi, ne sic denegetis mihi petenti id quo me confiteor indignum, ut auferatur vobis id quo certe vos negare non potestis dignos. Date itaque, piissimi, date obsecro supplicanti animae meae, non propter meritum meum sed propter meritum vestrum, date illi quanto digni estis amorem vestrum. Date, inquam, mihi quo sum indignus, ut reddatur vobis quo estis digni. Si enim non vultis dare ut habeam quod desidero: saltem nolite negare ut reddam vobis quod debeo. Forsan praesumendo loquar, sed utique bonitas vestra facit me audacem. Loquar ergo adhuc ad dominum meum et dominam meam, “cum sim pulvis et cinis”. Domine et domina, nonne multo melius est, cum vos gratis donatis petenti quod ipse non meretur, quam cum vobis subtrahitur quod vobis iuste debetur? Illud quippe est praedicandae misericordiae, istud est nefandae iniustitiae. Impendite igitur, piissimi, gratiam, ut recipiatis debitum. Facite vos mihi misericordiam vestram quae mihi expedit et vos decet: ne faciam ego vobis iniustitiam meam quae nulli expedit et nullum decet. Estote vos mihi misericordes, quod obsecro: ne sim ego vobis iniustus, quod execror. Date, benigne et benigna, nec sitis exoratu difficiles; date animae meae amorem vestri, quem ipsa non iniuste petit et vos iuste exigitis: ne ipsa bonis vestris sit ingrata, quod ipsa iuste horret et vos non iniuste punitis. Certe, IESU fili dei et tu MARIA mater eius, et vos vultis et aequum est, ut quidquid vos diligitis diligatur a nobis. Ergo bone fili, rogo te per dilectionem qua diligis matrem tuam, ut sicut tu vere diligis et diligi vis eam: ita mihi des ut vere diligam eum. Bona mater, rogo te per dilectionem qua diligis filium tuum, ut sicut tu vere diligis et diligi vis eum: ita mihi impetres ut vere diligam eum. Ecce enim peto, quod ut fiat vere est in vestra voluntate; cur ergo propter peccata mea non fiet, cum sit et in vestra potestate? Amator et miserator hominum, tu potuisti reos tuos et usque ad mortem amare, et poteris te roganti amorem tui et matris tuae negare? Mater huius amatoris nostri, quae illum in ventre portare et in sinu meruisti lactare, an tu non poteris aut non voles poscenti amorem eius et tuum impetrare? Veneretur igitur vos sicut digni estis mens mea, amet vos sicut aequum est cor meum, diligat vos sicut sibi expedit anima mea, serviat vobis sicut debet caro mea, et in hoc consummetur vita mea, ut in aeternum psallat tota substantia mea: »Benedictus dominus in aeternum, fiat, fiat«. | Mary, I implore thee by that grace through which the Lord willed thus to be with thee, as thou with him; by reason of this grace and through it, grant that thy mercy may be with me. Grant that the love of thee may always be with me and that the care of me may always be with thee. Grant that the cry of my need, for as long as it lasts, may be with thee, and that the gaze of thy goodness, for as long as I exist, may be with me. Grant that joy for thy happiness may always be with me, and that compassion for my misery may be with thee, for as long as I shall need it. O most blessed one, just as it is necessary that whoever lives turned away from thee and forsaken by thee should perish, so it is impossible that whoever is turned towards thee and regarded by thee should be lost. O Our Lady, just as God begot him in whom all things have life, so thou, O flower of virginity, hast begotten him by whom what is dead comes back to life. And just as God, through his Son, preserved from sin the blessed angels, so thou, O splendour of purity, through thy Son, hast saved unhappy men from sin. As the Son of God is the beatitude of the just, so thou, O salvation of fruitfulness, thy Son is the reconciliation of sinners. For there is no reconciliation except that which thou hast conceived in thy chastity; no justification except that which thou hast formed in thy womb, in thy integrity; no salvation except that which, a virgin, thou hast brought forth. Therefore, O Our Lady, thou art the Mother of justification and of the justified, Mother of reconciliation and of the reconciled, Mother of salvation and of the saved. O blessed certainty, O sure refuge! The Mother of God is our Mother. The Mother of him in whom alone we hope and whom alone we fear, is our Mother. The Mother of him who alone saves or condemns, is our Mother. But, O blessed and exalted not for thyself alone, but also for us, what then do I see so great and so lovable coming to us through thee, such that in seeing it I rejoice, but in my joy I dare not express it? Indeed, if thou, Our Lady, art his Mother, are not thy other sons his brothers? But what brothers, and of whom? Shall I speak according to what brings joy to my heart, or shall I be silent, lest I be accused of pride in my speech? But what I believe with love, why should I not confess in praise? I shall speak, therefore, not with pride, but in thanksgiving. He who arranged to be himself of our nature by his maternal generation, and who made us sons of his Mother by our return to life, he himself invites us to confess that we are his brothers. Therefore, our judge is our Brother. The Saviour of the world is our Brother. In short, our God has been made, through Mary, our Brother. With what certainty must we hope, with what consolation may we fear, we whose salvation or condemnation depends on the judgement of a good Brother or a tender Mother? With what love must we love this Brother and this Mother? With what familiarity shall we entrust ourselves to them? With what security shall we take refuge near them? Refugees, with what sweetness shall we be welcomed? May our good Brother remit our faults, remove from us what we had deserved because of them, grant what we ask of him in repentance. May the good Mother pray and intercede for us, ask and obtain what is fitting for us. May she pray to her Son for her sons, the only-begotten for the adopted, the Lord for the servants. May the good Son hear his Mother on behalf of his brothers, he, the only-begotten, on behalf of those whom he has made adopted sons, he, the Lord, on behalf of those whom he has freed.O Mary, how great is our debt to thee! Our Lady, Mother through whom we have such a Brother, what thanksgiving, what praises can we give thee in return?Our Lord, thou who art great, our eldest Brother, Our Lady, thou who art great, our best Mother, teach my heart with what reverence we must think of you. Thou who art good, and thou who art good, thou who art gentle, and thou who art gentle, say and grant to my soul the love that shall rejoice in your memory and that, in rejoicing, shall satisfy it. Satisfy it and burn it with your love. May my heart always languish with love for you, may my soul melt and my flesh fail because of it. May the depths of my soul be inflamed with the sweet ardour of your love; may the depths of my flesh be dried up because of it. May the depths of my spirit be satisfied with the sweetness of your love so as to dry out the very marrow of my body. Lord, Son of my Sovereign, Sovereign, Mother of my Lord, if, for my part, I am not worthy to be thus beatified by your love, you, at least, are not unworthy to be thus loved and to be loved still far more. Therefore, in your benevolence, do not refuse me what I confess myself unworthy of; you would lose what you cannot claim to be unworthy of. Grant then, in your goodness, grant to my suppliant soul, not by virtue of my merits but of yours, grant it to love you as much as you are worthy of it. Yes, give me what I am unworthy of, so that there may be rendered to you what you are worthy of. For if you do not wish to give it to me to satisfy my desire, at least do not refuse it to me to allow me to acquit my debt. Perhaps I shall speak presumptuously, but it is your goodness that gives me boldness. Therefore I shall speak again to my Lord and to my Sovereign, “although I am dust and ashes”. Our Lord, Our Lady, is it not far more fitting for you to give willingly to one who asks what he does not deserve, than to be deprived of what is due to you in strict justice? On the one hand, it is praiseworthy mercy; on the other, abominable injustice. In your charity, therefore, pour forth your grace, in order to receive your due. Grant me that mercy I need and that befits you, lest I inflict upon you an injustice which no one needs and which befits no one. Be therefore merciful, I beg you, lest I be unjust towards you, which I abhor. Thou who art good, and thou who art good, give, allow yourselves to be moved; give my soul the love of you, so that it may not unjustly demand what you rightly require: thus it shall not be ungrateful for your benefits, which it rightly abhors and which you do not unjustly chastise. Assuredly, O Jesus, Son of God, and thou, Mary, his Mother, such is your will, such also is justice: that all that you love, we too should love. Therefore, O good Son, I pray thee, by the love with which thou lovest thy Mother as thou truly lovest her and as thou wilt that she be loved, grant me to love her truly. O good Mother, I pray thee, by the love with which thou lovest thy Son: as thou truly lovest him and as thou wilt that he be loved, obtain for me to love him truly. What I ask thus, it is in your will to fulfil, since it is also in your power; why then should my sins hinder it? Thou who lovest men and hast pity on them, thou who hast been able to love the guilty even unto death itself, wilt thou refuse love of thee and of thy Mother to one who asks it of thee? And thou, Mother of him who loves us, thou who hast merited to bear him in thy womb and to nourish him with thy milk, wilt thou not be able, or wilt thou not consent, to obtain for one who asks it the love of him and of thee? May my spirit venerate you as you are worthy, may my heart love you as is just, may my soul love you as is fitting for it, may my flesh serve you as it ought, and thus may my life be consumed, so that my whole being may sing for ever: “Blessed be the Lord eternally, amen, amen!” |
[Latin text of the critical edition of F.S. SCHMITT]
Appendix 3
Plea to Pope Leo XIV
for Saints John Eudes and Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort
to be declared Doctors of the Church
Most Holy Father,
Two days ago, on 31 July, in the grace of the Jubilee, you expressed your intention to confer the title of Doctor of the Church on Saint John Henry Newman. This brought great joy to all of us, and we thank you wholeheartedly.
Without delay, I write to you on this Saturday, 2 August, the first Saturday of the month, a day dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, of which St. John Eudes was the great apostle and theologian, to express my deepest desire to see you give the same title to John Eudes (1601–1680) and St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673–1716). They are the two principal representatives of the great Christocentric and Marian spirituality of the “French School,” founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Personally, I have worked for many years on these two causes, at the request of the Dicasteries for the Causes of Saints and for the Doctrine of the Faith, in collaboration with the Montfort Fathers and the Eudists. I am a Discalced Carmelite, Professor Emeritus of Dogmatic and Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical Faculty Teresianum. Member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, I am also a theological consultant for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, appointed by Saint John Paul II in 2004, confirmed in this mission by Benedict XVI, and most recently by Pope Francis until 2030.
I have lived forty-one years in Rome and am now a member of the Carmelite community of Lisieux, where I work on the dissemination of the doctrine of the Little Thérèse, so dear to Pope Francis, as seen in his Apostolic Exhortation C’est la confiance and in his most recent Encyclical Dilexit nos.
In 1997, I collaborated on the Positio for the cause of Thérèse, later proclaimed by St. John Paul II. The process towards the cause of Montfort slowed in 2001 (for methodological reasons), but the path remained open, as shown by John Paul II’s important letter to the religious and religious women of the Montfortian families of 8 December 2003, highlighting the perfect harmony between the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the doctrine of Montfort. Later, Benedict XVI summarised Montfort’s essential influence on John Paul II in the homily for his beatification (1 May 2011). I also collaborated on the cause of St. Gregory of Narek, proclaimed by Pope Francis in 2015. My present supplication is therefore based on long experience with recent causes.
There is a profound similarity and doctrinal convergence between John Eudes and Louis-Marie de Montfort in the same historical context of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century France. Both were missionary priests and founders, who received an excellent theological formation in Paris—Eudes at the Oratory under Bérulle, Montfort later at the Sorbonne and the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. Constantly referencing Sacred Scripture and the great tradition of the Church, represented by the Magisterium and the Saints, they teach the entire People of God, particularly the small and the poor, a path of holiness founded on the sacraments (mainly Baptism and the Eucharist), in a radically Christocentric perspective, with the continual presence of Mary.
Most Holy Father, you recalled in your first message to the French bishops, on 28 May last, that John Eudes “was the first to celebrate the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” This is why Pope Francis mentioned him in his Encyclical Dilexit nos (n. 113). His symbolic theology of the heart is very rich, encompassing all dimensions of Divinity and Humanity: “The bodily heart, the spiritual heart, and the Divine heart” express a “triple love” (nn. 64–69). This great theology of the Heart is fully developed in John Eudes’ final work, his masterpiece Le Cœur Admirable de la Sacrée Mère de Dieu, completed in the last days of his life and published posthumously in 1681. It is a very long text (nearly 1,500 pages in the Complete Works), like an immense and magnificent forest.
By contrast, the masterpiece of Father Montfort, the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, also written at the end of his life, is a short work (barely 200 pages), immediately published and translated into many languages after its discovery in 1842. It is very clear, structured in a somewhat geometric way, like a “French garden” of the time. This treatise was summarised in an even more concise form in the booklet The Secret of Mary. Montfort’s Treatise quickly became a classic of spiritual life, with immense influence on the life of the People of God, especially on the saints.
In these two works of Montfort and John Eudes, we find the same synthesis of the entire Christian Mystery in contemplating Jesus in Mary and Mary in Jesus—that is, Mary in the Mystery of Christ and of the Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, ch. VIII). Jesus is always at the centre, as true God and true Man, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the Absolute to whom Mary and the Church are totally relative.
Among other works of these two saints, particular mention should be made of the earlier works: The Life and Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls by John Eudes and The Love of Eternal Wisdom by Louis-Marie, in which Jesus and Mary are successively contemplated—works rich in spiritual content, but not yet fully synthesised. By contrast, in their final works mentioned above, the contemplation of Jesus in Mary perfectly unifies and synthesises all this doctrine.
Certainly, in their writings there are some limitations or points to correct, as with the greatest Doctors of the Church. Consider, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas regarding the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which had not yet been defined as dogma.
They lived in the time of the “Counter-Reformation,” with certain polemical expressions against the Protestants, which must obviously be transcended in the new ecumenical climate of Vatican II. They have a strong and correct sense of sin and of the indispensable work of Redemption accomplished by Jesus, the unique Saviour of man. Yet, occasionally, there are exaggerations when they speak of “corrupted nature.” The same applies to the classical distinction between the “predestined” (who will certainly go to Heaven) and the “reprobate” (who will certainly go to Hell).
On all these points, St. Thérèse of Lisieux comes to our aid, with her new and even deeper understanding of the infinite Mercy of Jesus, the source of boundless hope for the salvation of the greatest sinners, such as the criminal Pranzini, whom she calls “my first child,” always conscious of the great danger of definitive refusal and eternal death. Thérèse is never polemical. All these saints share the same passion for the salvation of souls.
Finally, Most Holy Father, I am convinced that the title of Doctor of the Church, conferred on these two saints, would be important for the entire People of God and for Catholic theology, so that all might live and grow in the love and knowledge of Jesus and Mary.
I pray with this intention and for your great mission in the whole Church and in today’s world.
With all my filial love and in profound communion in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Lisieux, Saturday 2 August 2025
fr François-Marie Léthel ocd
Appendix 4
SAINT LOUIS-MARIE GRIGNION DE MONTFORT (1673-1716)
THE LOVE OF JESUS IN MARY
True Devotion to Mary
The Treatise on True Devotion (TD) is summarised in The Secret of Mary (SM). The autograph manuscript of the Treatise is incomplete, with the first and last pages missing. The main structural divisions of the Treatise are indicated in TD 60, 90‑91, 118‑119 and 134. It is constructed like a “French formal garden” of the period.
[Absence of the Title and the Introduction (SM 1‑6, cf. TD 256)]
FIRST PART:
MARY IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH (1‑89)
(THE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF TRUE DEVOTION)
The place of Mary in the dynamic of Trinitarian Christocentrism, in connection with the Mysteries of Creation, Salvation, and the Church (cf. the Niceno‑Constantinopolitan Creed).
I/ “THE NECESSITY WE HAVE FOR DEVOTION TO THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN” (1‑59)
“Since the Most Holy Virgin is necessary to God, by a necessity which is called hypothetical, in consequence of His will, she is much more necessary to men in order to reach their final end” (39).
A/ Mary in the Christocentric and Trinitarian “symphony” of salvation (1‑36): her “necessity for God”.
B/ Consequence: the necessity of Mary for us, to be saved, to become saints (37‑59). In union with Jesus the New Adam, Alpha and Omega, Mary the New Eve is linked to the Mysteries of the Beginning (Gn 2 and 3) and of the End Times (Rev. 12). Strong emphasis on “the eschatological character of the pilgrim Church” (cf. Lumen Gentium, ch. VII) and on the essential role of the saints formed by Mary in combating the powers of evil.
II/ “FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN” (60‑89).
1/ Jesus Christ is the final end of devotion to Mary (61‑67).
2/ We belong to Jesus and to Mary as slaves of Love (68‑77).
3/ Necessity of our radical purification (78‑82).
4/ Mary Mediatrix with Jesus the sole Mediator (83‑86).
5/ It is very difficult for us to preserve the graces and treasures received from God (87‑89).
SECOND PART:
TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY IN ITS MOST PERFECT FORM (90‑273)
(THE ECCLESIAL PATH OF HOLINESS)
I/ FALSE DEVOTIONS AND TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY (92‑114)
A/ “False devotees and false devotions to Mary” (92‑104).
92 “I find seven sorts of false devotees and false devotions to Mary:
- the critical devotees (93);
- the scrupulous devotees (94‑95);
- the external devotees (96);
- the presumptuous devotees (97‑100);
- the inconstant devotees (101);
- the hypocritical devotees (102);
- the interested devotees” (103‑104).
B/ True Devotion to Mary (105‑114).
105 “After having exposed and condemned false devotions to the Blessed Virgin, we must in a few words establish the true one, which is:
1/ Interior (106),
2/ Tender (107),
3/ Holy (108),
4/ Constant (109),
5/ Disinterested (110‑114).” Personal confidences of the author on this Treatise.
II/ “AMONG SO MANY DIFFERENT PRACTICES OF TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN, WHICH IS THE MOST PERFECT?” (115‑133)
A/ Various interior and exterior practices of True Devotion to Mary (115‑117).
B/ The perfect practice of Devotion to Mary. It consists in living fully the consecration of baptism, through the total gift of oneself to Jesus through Mary, as a slave of Love (118‑133).
III/ “MOTIVES, WONDERFUL EFFECTS AND PRACTICES OF THIS PERFECT DEVOTION” (134‑273)
A/ “The motives which should render this devotion recommendable to us” (135‑182).
1/ Total belonging to Jesus through Mary (135‑138).
2/ Perfect imitation of Jesus in His humiliation and loving dependence on Mary in the Incarnation (139‑143).
3/ Mary gives herself entirely to her slave of love: “Totus tuus/Tota mea” (144‑150).
4/ “For the greater Glory of God” (151).
5/ Mary is the best way to reach union with Jesus, that is, holiness (152‑168).
1° “an easy way” (152‑154). Suffering and sweetness (symbol of sugar or “jam”).
2° “a short way” (155‑156).
3° “a perfect way” (157‑158). Mary, the descending way of the Incarnation and the ascending way of our divinisation.
4° “a secure way” (159‑167).
6/ “A great interior freedom” (169‑170).
7/ Perfect love of neighbour (171‑172).
8/ A marvellous means of perseverance (173‑182).
B/ Biblical figure of this perfect devotion: Rebecca and Jacob (183‑212).
Narrative expression in the form of a parable, but the Augustinian issue of the “predestined” (surely saved, represented by Jacob) and the “reprobate” (surely damned, represented by Esau) may be corrected with Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church.
C/ “The wonderful effects of this devotion in faithful souls” (213‑225).
1/ Participation in Mary’s humility (213).
2/ Participation in her faith (214).
3/ Participation in her love (215).
4/ Great confidence in God and in Mary (216).
5/ Communication of the soul and spirit of Mary (216‑217).
6/ Transformation into Mary in the image of Jesus Christ (218‑221). Symbol of the mould.
7/ The greatest glory of Jesus (222‑225). “Mary totally relative to God… the relation of God” (225).
D/ “The practices of this devotion” (226‑273).
1/ Exterior practices (226‑256).
1° The consecration, after preparatory exercises (227‑233).
2° Recitation of the little crown of the Blessed Virgin (234‑235).
3° Wearing a chain, as the bodily symbol of this slavery of Love (236‑242).
4° Special devotion to the Mystery of the Incarnation (243‑248).
5° Devotion to the Ave Maria and the Rosary (249‑251).
6° Recitation of the Magnificat (255).
7° Detachment from the world (256).
2/ “Particular and interior practices for those who wish to become perfect” or “Highly sanctifying interior practices for those whom the Holy Spirit calls to great perfection” (257‑265).
257 “It is, in four words, to perform all one’s actions:
1° THROUGH MARY (258‑259),
2° WITH MARY (260),
3° IN MARY (261‑264),
4° FOR MARY (265),”in order to perform them more perfectly through Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus and for Jesus.”
“THE MANNER OF PRACTISING THIS DEVOTION IN HOLY COMMUNION” (266‑273)
(Eucharistic ending of the Treatise, as in the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas.)
Absence of the Conclusion, with the Prayer of Consecration (SM 66‑69, ASE 223‑227. Cf. TD 231).
Saint John Paul II preferred the short formula of Consecration in TD 266, at the moment of Communion: Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt… Accipio Te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, O Maria – “I am all yours, and all that I have is yours. I take you for all my good. Give me your Heart, O Mary.”
In the total gift of oneself, it is the reception of Mary, given by Jesus to His beloved Disciple: Accepit eam discipulus in sua – “The disciple took her into his own home” (Jn 19:27).
Appendix 5
The Last Poem of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (May 1897, PN 54)
A synthesis of her Marian spirituality
MJT
May 1897
(Air: Why did you deliver me the other day, oh my Mother)
1. Oh! I would like to sing, Mary, why I love you,
Why your sweet name thrills my heart,
And why the thought of your supreme greatness
Could not bring fear to my soul.
If I gazed on you in your sublime glory,
Surpassing the splendour of all the blessed,
I could not believe that I am your child.
O Mary, before you I would lower my eyes!…
2. If a child is to cherish his mother,
She has to cry with him and share his sorrows.
O my dearest Mother, on this foreign shore
How many tears you shed to draw me to you!…
In pondering your life in the holy Gospels,
I dare look at you and come near you.
It’s not difficult for me to believe I’m your child,
For I see you human and suffering like me…
3. When an angel from Heaven bids you be the Mother
Of the God who is to reign for all eternity,
I see you prefer, O Mary, what a mystery!
The ineffable treasure of virginity.
O Immaculate Virgin, I understand how your soul
Is dearer to the Lord than his heavenly dwelling.
I understand how your soul, Humble and Sweet Valley,
Can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!…
4. Oh! I love you, Mary, saying you are the servant
Of the God whom you charm by your humility.
This hidden virtue makes you all-powerful.
It attracts the Holy Trinity into your heart.
Then the Spirit of Love covering you with his shadow,
The Son equal to the Father became incarnate in you,
There will be a great many of his sinner brothers,
Since he will be called: Jesus, your first-born!…
5. O beloved Mother, despite my littleness,
Like you I possess The Ail-Powerful within me.
But I don’t tremble in seeing my weakness:
The treasures of a mother belong to her child,
And I am your child, O my dearest Mother.
Aren’t your virtues and your love mine too?
So when the white Host comes into my heart,
Jesus, your Sweet Lamb, thinks he is resting in you!…
6. You make me feel that it’s not impossible
To follow in your footsteps, O Queen of the elect.
You made visible the narrow road to Heaven
While always practicing the humblest virtues.
Near you, Mary, I like to stay little.
I see the vanity of greatness here below.
At the home of Saint Elizabeth, receiving your visit,
I learn how to practice ardent charity.
7. There, Sweet Queen of angels, I listen, delighted,
To the sacred canticle springing forth from your heart.
You teach me to sing divine praises,
To glory in Jesus my Savior.
Your words of love are mystical roses
Destined to perfume the centuries to come.
In you the Almighty has done great things.
I want to ponder them to bless him for them.
8. When good Saint Joseph did not know of the miracle
That you wanted to hide in your humility,
You let him cry close by the Tabernacle
Veiling the Savior’s divine beauty!
Oh Mary! how I love your eloquent silence!
For me it is a sweet, melodious concert
That speaks to me of the greatness and power
Of a soul which looks only to Heaven for help…
9. Later in Bethlehem, O Joseph and Mary!
I see you rejected by all the villagers.
No one wants to take in poor foreigners.
There’s room for the great ones…
There’s room for the great ones, and it’s in a stable
That the Queen of Heaven must give birth to a God.
O my dearest Mother, how lovable I find you
How great I find you in such a poor place!…
10. When I see the Eternal God wrapped in swaddling clothes,
When I hear the poor cry of the Divine Word,
O my dearest Mother, I no longer envy the angels,
For their Powerful Lord is my dearest Brother!…
How I love you, Mary, you who made
This Divine Flower blossom on our shores!
How I love you listening to the shepherds and wisemen
And keeping it all in your heart with care!…
11. I love you mingling with the other women
Walking toward the holy temple.
I love you presenting the Savior of our souls
To the blessed Old Man who pressed Him to his heart.
At first I smile as I listen to his canticle,
But soon his tone makes me shed tears.
Plunging a prophetic glance into the future,
Simeon presents you with a sword of sorrows.
12. O Queen of martyrs, till the evening of your life
That sorrowful sword will pierce your heart,
Already you must leave your native land
To flee a king’s jealous fury.
Jesus sleeps in peace under the folds of your veil.
Joseph comes begging you to leave at once,
And at once your obedience is revealed.
You leave without delay or reasoning.
13. O Mary, it seems to me that in the land of Egypt
Your heart remains joyful in poverty,
For is not Jesus the fairest Homeland,
What does exile matter to you? You hold Heaven…
But in Jerusalem a bitter sadness
Comes to flood your heart like a vast ocean.
For three days, Jesus hides from your tenderness.
That is indeed exile in all its harshness!…
14.At last you find him and you are overcome with joy,
You say to the fair Child captivating the doctors:
“O my Son, why have you done this?
Your father and I have been searching for you in tears.”
And the Child God replies (O what a deep mystery!)
To his dearest Mother holding out her arms to him:
“Why were you searching for me?
I must be about My Father’s business; didn’t you know?”
15. The Gospel tells me that, growing in wisdom,
Jesus remains subject to Joseph and Mary,
And my heart reveals to me with what tenderness
He always obeys his dear parents.
Now I understand the mystery of the temple,
The hidden words of my Lovable King.
Mother, your sweet Child wants you to be the example
Of the soul searching for Him in the night of faith.
16. Since the King of Heaven wanted his Mother
To be plunged into the night, in anguish of heart,
Mary, is it thus a blessing to suffer on earth?
Yes, to suffer while loving is the purest happiness!…
All that He has given me, Jesus can take back.
Tell him not to bother with me
He can indeed hide from me, I’m willing to wait for him
Till the day without sunset when my faith will fade away..
17. Mother full of grace, I know that in Nazareth
You live in poverty, wanting nothing more.
No rapture, miracle, or ecstasy
Embellish your life, 0 Queen of the Elect!…
The number of little ones on earth is truly great.
They can raise their eyes to you without trembling.
It’s by the ordinary way, incomparable Mother,
That you like to walk to guide them to Heaven.
18. While waiting for Heaven, O my dear Mother,
I want to live with you, to follow you each day.
Mother, contemplating you, I joyfully immerse myself,
Discovering in your heart abysses of love.
Your motherly gaze banishes all my fears.
It teaches me to cry, it teaches me to rejoice.
Instead of scorning pure and simple joys,
You want to share in them, you deign to bless them.
19. At Cana, seeing the married couple’s anxiety
Which they cannot hide, for they have run out of wine,
In your concern you tell the Savior,
Hoping for the help of his divine power.
Jesus seems at first to reject your prayer:
“Woman, what does this matter,” he answers, “to you and to me?”
But in the depths of his heart, He calls you his Mother,
And he works his first miracle for you…
20. One day when sinners are listening to the doctrine
Of Him who would like to welcome them in Heaven,
Mary, I find you with them on the hill.
Someone says to Jesus that you wish to see him.
Then, before the whole multitude, your Divine Son
Shows us the immensity of his love for us.
He says: “Who is my brother and my sister and my Mother,
If not the one who does my will?”
21. O Immaculate Virgin, most tender of Mothers,
In listening to Jesus, you are not saddened.
But you rejoice that He makes us understand
How our souls become his family here below.
Yes, you rejoice that He gives us his life,
The infinite treasures of his divinity!…
How can we not love you, O my dear Mother,
On seeing so much love and so much humility?
22. You love us, Mary, as Jesus loves us,
And for us you accept being separated from Him.
To love is to give everything. It’s to give oneself.
You wanted to prove this by remaining our support.
The Savior knew your immense tenderness.
He knew the secrets of your maternal heart.
Refuge of sinners, He leaves us to you
When He leaves the Cross to wait for us in Heaven.
23. Mary, at the top of Calvary standing beside the Cross
To me you seem like a priest at the altar,
Offering your beloved Jesus, the sweet Emmanuel,
To appease the Father’s justice…
A prophet said, O afflicted Mother,
“There is no sorrow like your sorrow!”
O Queen of Martyrs, while remaining in exile
You lavish on us all the blood of your heart!
24. Saint John’s home becomes your only refuge.
Zebedee’s son is to replace Jesus
That is the last detail the Gospel gives.
It tells me nothing more of the Queen of Heaven.
But, O my dear Mother, doesn’t its profound silence
Reveal that The Eternal Word Himself
Wants to sing the secrets of your life
To charm your children, all the Elect of Heaven?
25. Soon I’ll hear that sweet harmony.
Soon I’ll go to beautiful Heaven to see you.
You who came to smile at me in the morning of my life,
Come smile at me again… Mother…. It’s evening now!…
I no longer fear the splendour of your supreme glory. With you
I’ve suffered, and now I want
To sing on your lap, Mary, why I love you,
And to go on saying that I am your child!
Little Thérèse
[1] I devoted long chapters to Irenaeus, Anselm, and Thérèse of Lisieux in my doctoral thesis in theology: Connaître l’Amour du Christ qui surpasse toute connaissance. La Théologie des Saints (“To Know the Love of Christ Which Surpasses All Knowledge. The Theology of the Saints”) (Venasque, 1989, Éditions du Carmel). In the retreat preached for Benedict XVI and the Roman Curia, I presented in particular the doctrine of Thérèse, Louis-Marie de Montfort, and Catherine, in connection with John Paul II: La Lumière du Christ dans le Cœur de l’Église (“The Light of Christ in the Heart of the Church”) (Paris, 2011, Éditions Parole et Silence). Numerous texts from these Saints may be found in these two books.
[2] St. Anselm appears to have been favourable to the Immaculate Conception, which was already celebrated on 8 December in certain churches. His disciple and biographer Eadmer would be one of the first to write in favour of the Immaculate Conception, whereas later St. Bernard and St. Thomas would oppose it. As the dogma had not yet been defined, St. Thomas More speaks of it as two opposing opinions upheld by saints. He names Saint Anselm as an example of those who were favourable to the Immaculate Conception (Thomas More: Écrits de prison (“Prison Writings”), Paris, 1958, Éditions du Seuil, pp. 108–109).
[3] The prayer opens in a praise woven of biblical symbols, in the same tone as the Akathist Hymn. It is appropriate to quote the original text in medieval Italian: “O Maria, Maria, tempio della Trinità! o Maria, portatrice del fuoco! Maria, porgetrice di misericordia, Maria germinatrice del fructo, Maria ricomperatrice de l’umana generacione, perché sostenendo la carne tua in nel Verbo fu ricomprato el mondo: Cristo ricomprò con la sua passione e tu col dolore del corpo e della mente. O Maria mare pacifico, Maria donatrice di pace, Maria terra fruttifera. Tu, Maria, se’ quella pianta novella della quale aviamo el fiore odorifero del Verbo unigenito Figliuolo di Dio, però che in te, terra fruttifera, fu seminato questo Verbo. Tu se’ la terra e se’ la pianta. O Maria carro di fuoco, tu portasti el fuoco nascosto e velato sotto la cennere della tua umanità. O Maria vassello d’umilità, nel quale vassello sta e arde el lume del vero cognoscimento, col quale tu levasti te sopra di te, e però piacesti al Padre etterno, unde egli ti rapì e trasse a sé amandoti di singulare amore. Con questo lume e fuoco della tua carità e con l’olio della tua umilità traesti tu e inchinasti la divinità sua a venire in te, benché prima fu tratto da l’ardentissimo fuoco della sua inestimabile carità a venire a noi” (Text from the critical edition by Giuliana Cavallini: S. CATERINA DA SIENA: Le Orazioni, Roma, 1978, Ed Cateriniane, p. 118-120).
Translation: “O Mary, Mary, temple of the Trinity! O Mary, bearer of fire! Mary, giver of mercy, Mary, sprouter of fruit, Mary, redeemer (rebuyer) of the human race, for by sustaining your flesh in the Word the world was redeemed: Christ redeemed (bought) it through His Passion and you with the suffering of body and mind. O Mary, peaceful sea, Mary, giver of peace, Mary, fruitful earth. You, Mary, are that new plant of which we have the fragrant flower of the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, for in you, fruitful earth, this Word was sown. You are the soil and you are the plant. O Mary, chariot of fire, you carried the hidden and veiled fire under the ashes of your humanity. O Mary, vessel of humility, in which vessel stands and burns the light of true knowledge, with which you lifted yourself above yourself, and therefore pleased the eternal Father, whence He seized you and drew you to Himself, loving you with singular love. With this light and fire of your charity, and with the oil of your humility, you drew and bowed His divinity to come into you, although first it was drawn by the most ardent fire of His inestimable charity to come to us.”
Here we find an example of a correct interpretation of “co-redemption.”
[4] The Greek word pleura used by Saint John to designate the Side of Jesus pierced on the Cross and still open after the Resurrection is a feminine word that also means Rib. It is the word used in the symbolic account of the creation of Eve from the Side or Rib of Adam during his sleep (Gn 2, in the Septuagint translation).
[5] In the year 2000, I published a new edition of the Traité de la vraie dévotion (True Devotion to Mary) and of the Secret de Marie (The Secret of Mary), which summarises it, with a long theological introduction for the purpose of the Doctorate: L’Amour de Jésus en Marie (The Love of Jesus in Mary) (Geneva, 2000, ed. Ad Solem, 2 vols).
[6] The complete text of Le Coeur Admirable is found in volumes VI, VII, and VIII of the Oeuvres Complètes de saint Jean Eudes (Paris, 1911, ed. Lethielleux et Beauchesne). We refer to this edition by indicating the volumes and pages.
[7] For example, one can cite this very beautiful passage from True Devotion:
“This practice of devotion to the Most Holy Virgin is a perfect way to go to and unite with Jesus Christ, since the divine Mary is the most perfect and holiest of pure creatures, and Jesus Christ, who has perfectly come to us, took no other route on His great and admirable journey. The Most High, the Incomprehensible, the Inaccessible, the One Who Is, wished to come to us, little worms of the earth, who are nothing. How did this happen? The Most High descended perfectly and divinely through humble Mary to us, without losing anything of His divinity and holiness; and it is through Mary that the very little ones must ascend perfectly and divinely to the Most High without apprehension. The Incomprehensible allowed Himself to be perfectly understood and contained by little Mary, without losing anything of His immensity; it is also through little Mary that we must allow ourselves to be contained and led perfectly, without any reservation. The Inaccessible approached, united closely, perfectly, and even personally with our humanity through Mary, without losing any of His Majesty; it is also through Mary that we must approach God and unite with His Majesty perfectly and closely, without fear of being rejected. Finally, the One Who Is wished to come to that which is not, and to make that which is not become God or the One Who Is; He did this perfectly by giving Himself and submitting entirely to the young Virgin Mary, without ceasing in time to be the One Who Is of all Eternity; likewise, it is through Mary that, though we are nothing, we can become like God, by grace and glory, by giving ourselves to her so perfectly and entirely that we are nothing in ourselves and all in her, without fear of error.” (True Devotion, n. 157)
[8] Louis-Marie uses the symbol of the “mould” on this subject:
“Mary is called by St. Augustine, and is indeed the living [mould] of God, forma Dei, that is to say that it is in her alone that God [made] man was formed naturally, without lacking any trait of Divinity, and it is also in her alone that man can be formed in God naturally, as far as human nature is capable, through the grace of Jesus Christ. A sculptor can make a figure or a portrait naturally in two ways: first, by using his skill, strength, knowledge, and the goodness of his tools to make this figure in a hard and shapeless material; second, he can cast it in a mould. The first is long and difficult and subject to many accidents: often it only takes a badly placed chisel or hammer blow to ruin the entire work. The second is swift, easy, and gentle, almost without effort and without cost, provided that the mould is perfect and represents the figure naturally; provided that the material he uses is easily handled, offering no resistance to his hand. Mary is the great mould of God, made by the Holy Spirit, to form a God-Man naturally by the hypostatic union, and to form a God-Man through grace. No trait of divinity is lacking in this mould; whoever is cast into it and allows themselves to be worked upon also receives all the traits of Jesus Christ, true God, in a gentle and proportioned manner to human weakness, without much agony or labour; in a sure way, without fear of illusion, for the devil has never had and will never have access to Mary, holy and immaculate, without a shadow of the slightest stain of sin. Oh! dear soul, what a difference there is between a soul formed in Jesus Christ by the ordinary ways of those who, like sculptors, rely on their own skill and depend on their craft, and a soul that is supple, well-formed, well-melted, which, relying on nothing of itself, casts itself into Mary and allows itself to be worked upon by the operation of the Holy Spirit! How many stains, how many defects, how much darkness, how many illusions, how much naturalness, how much human weakness there is in the first soul; and how the second is pure, divine, and like Jesus Christ!” (Secret of Mary, n. 16-18).
[9] St. Paul VI recalled this truth in his solemn address to the Council, promulgating the Constitution Lumen Gentium and declaring Mary “Mother of the Church” (21 November 1964).
[10] Apostolic Exhortation C’est la confiance, (n. 51).
[11] See my book: L’Amour de Jésus. La christologie de sainte Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus (Paris, 1997, ed. Desclée, col. “Jésus et Jésus-Christ”).
[12] PN 5, stanza 11. The texts of Thérèse are cited from the volume of her Œuvres Complètes (Paris, 1992, ed. Cerf/DDB), using the following abbreviations: Ms for the three Autobiographical Manuscripts A, B, and C (with folio numbers, recto/verso), LT for the Letters, PN for the Poems, RP for the Récréations Pieuses, and Pri for the Prayers. L’Histoire d’une âme is Thérèse’s book gathering her essential writings: the three Autobiographical Manuscripts and the two principal Prayers, The Prayer on the Day of her Religious Profession and The Offering to Merciful Love (in the economical “Pocket” edition).
[13] This letter particularly touched Saint Pius X at the moment he opened the Cause for the Beatification of Thérèse. It encouraged him in his commitment to frequent and daily Communion. He had prophesied that she would be “the greatest saint of modern times.” Pope Francis also emphasises the value of Thérèse’s eucharistic spirituality (C’est la confiance, n. 22).
[14] “Scrupulous devotees are those who fear dishonouring the Son by honouring the Mother, of lowering one by raising the other” (True Devotion to Mary, n. 94).
[15] According to Pope Francis, this is one of Thérèse’s greatest discoveries, one of her most significant contributions to the People of God (C’est la confiance, nn. 38–41).
[16] Pope Francis emphasises this point: “For Thérèse, indeed, God shines above all through His mercy, the key to understanding all that is said of Him: ‘To me He has given His infinite Mercy, and it is through it that I contemplate and adore the other Divine perfections!… Then all appear to me radiant with love, even Justice (and perhaps more than all the others) seems clothed in love’ (Ms A, 83v). This is one of Thérèse’s most important discoveries, one of her greatest contributions for the entire People of God. She entered in an extraordinary way into the depths of divine mercy and drew from it the light of her boundless hope” (C’est la confiance, n. 27).
[17] This Eucharistic and Marian spirituality was lived within the same Carmelite family by the Venerable Sister Lucia of Fatima. Cf. my book, written in collaboration with Sister Angela Coelho, vice-postulator of Lucia’s Cause: Vivere nella Luce di Dio. Itinerario di Lucia di Gesù, Apostola di Fatima a partire dal Carmelo (Rome, 2025, ed. OCD).
[18] I personally collaborated with the Salesians in publishing the spiritual writings of Vera Grita in the volume entitled Portami con te! (Turin, 2017, ed. Elledici, soon to be published in French translation). I also wrote an article on Mother Rosetta Marchese: La presenza permanente del Corpo di Gesù in noi dopo la comunione come vera inabitazione eucaristica, secondo la Serva di Dio Madre Rosetta Marchese (The Permanent Presence of the Body of Jesus in us After Communion as true Eucharistic Indwelling, According to the Servant of God Mother Rosetta Marchese) (online journal Mysterion, September 2021).