Pope John Paul II has consistently praised the theology and spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort. The Holy Father's recent book, "Gift and Mystery" has the following quote about Saint Louis de Montfort:
... At one point I began to question any devotion to Mary, believing that, if it became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed Christ. At that time, I was greatly helped by a book by Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort entitled 'Treatise of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.' There I found the answers to my questions. Yes, Mary does bring us closer to Christ; she does lead us to him, provided that we live her mystery in Christ. This treatise by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort can be a bit disconcerting, given its rather florid and baroque style, but the essential theological truths which it contains are undeniable. The author was an outstanding theologian. His Mariological thought is rooted in the mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the Word of God. I then came to understand why the Church says the Angelus three times a day ... Such powerful words! They express the deepest reality of the greatest event ever to take place in human history. This is the origin of the motto 'Totus Tuus': The phrase comes from Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. it is an abbreviation of a more cmplete form of entrustment to the Mother of God which runs like this: 'Totus Tuus ego sum et omnia mea Tua sunt. Accipio Te in mea omnia. Praebe mighi cor Tuum, Maria.' And so, thanks to Saint Louis, I began to discover the immense riches of Marian devotion from new perspectives." (pp.28-30)
From St. Louis de Montfort - "True Devotion to Mary"
"Jesus Christ our Savior, true God and true Man, ought to be the last end of all our other devotions, else they are false and delusive. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, of all things, We labor not, as the Apostle says, except to render every man perfect in Jesus Christ; because it is in Him alone that the whole plenitude of the Divinity dwells together with all the other plenitudes of graces, virtures and perfections. It is in Him alone that we have been blessed with all spiritual benediction; and He is our only Master, who has to teach us; our only Lord on whom we ought to depend; our only Head to whom we must be united; our only Model to whom we should conform ourselves; our only Physcian 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.
There has been no other name given under Heaven, except the name of Jesus, by who we can be saved. God has laid no other foundation of our salvation, our perfection or our glory, than Jesus Christ. Every building which is not built on that firm rock is founded upon the moving sand, and sooner or latter infallibly will fall. Every one of the faithful who is not united to Him, as a branch to the stock of the vine, shall fall, shall wither, and shall be fit only to be cast into the fire. Outside of Him there exists nothing but error, falsehood, iniquity, futiltiy, death and damnation. But if we are in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is in us, we have no condemnation to fear. Neither the angels of Heaven not the men of earth nor the devils of Hell nor any other creature can injure us; because they cannot separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, we can do all things; we can render all honor and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost; we can become perfect ourselves, and be to our neighbor a good odor of eternal life. (2Cor. 2:15-16)"
"If, then, we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ. If devotion to Our Lady removed us from Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil; but so far from this being the case, devotion to Our Lady is, on the contrary, necessary for us - as I have already shown, and will show still further hereafter - as a means of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, of serving Him faithfully. "
"I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only His is "HE who is" (Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything. Nevertheless, I say that, things being as they are now - that is, God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her - we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct."
"The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary; but it was only after having asked her consent by one of the first ministers of His court. God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body. God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God - that is to say, not producing another Divine Person is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece, which is God made Man, and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the body of that adorable Head.
This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ. It is not that we mean that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruitfulness, as if He had it not Himself. For inasmuch as He is God, He has the same fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the Father and the Son; only He does not bring it into action, as He does not produce another Divine Person. But what we mean is that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady, though He had no absolute need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing in her and by her Jesus Christ and His members - a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual amoung Christians."
"God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary(Maria). This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty and splendor, of rarity and preciousness, including even His own Son: and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich."
Top Ten Reasons Why We Should Consecrate Our Lives to Jesus, through Mary
1. To emulate our Holy Father, Pope John Paul ll's sanctity, who has selectedthe de Montfort Consecration ( True Devotion ) for his own Marian Spirituality.
2. To provide the easiest, safest , fastest, most secure and surest path toJesus, and our own salvation.
3. To obtain Our Lady's help in bringing us to the level of conversion,holiness, and perfection in our lives needed to enable us to become greatSaints.
4. To turn our lives over to Jesus through Mary, for service to them, to reflectour love for them and our trust in them, now and for all eternity.
5. To obtain special graces and protection under Our Lady's protective mantlefor those who consecrate themselves to Jesus, through Mary.
6. To help bring others to Jesus through Mary for their conversion, holinessand perfection through this Total Consecration devotion.
7. To hasten the day of the Triumph of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, and the daywhen Mary and Jesus will reign in all hearts.
8. To fulfill Our Lady's request for individual consecration of our lives toher Immaculate Heart, as given through Sister Lucia to us during the Fatimaapparations.
9. To become an effective counter-force to the forces of evil so prevalent in the world.
10. To renew our Baptismal vows.
