Today, we often hear of having a personal relationship with Jesus, but we never hear
of having a personal relationship with Mary. Yet Father H.J. Junemann, in the Handbook of the Spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort, defines true devotion to Mary as:
“A personal love relationship with the mother of the Lord (p. 490).” He goes on to say it finds its highest expression in total dependence upon her, which, among other things, helps us from losing the grace of God.
Having a relationship with Jesus and his mother, Mary, is not an either-or proposition. Rather, it is an and/both occurrence. We are not devoted to Jesus or his mother to the exclusion of the other. We are dedicated to both. We love both. We pray to both. We depend on both. Not to say they are equal. Jesus is God. Mary is merely a creature. Ultimately, all our devotions must be aimed at Jesus, or they are false. True devotion to Mary has Jesus as its end, and so we know it is true. We give ourselves to Mary to better belong to Jesus. And we pray to Mary, knowing she intercedes directly with Jesus on our behalf. We depend on Mary, and by doing so, we depend on Jesus.
Father Junemann says that true devotion to Mary finds its highest expression in dependence on Mary. He does not just pull this out of thin air. The scriptural evidence of dependence on Mary is the Annunciation. Jesus comes into the world through Mary, and his dependence on her is the foundation on which we build our dependence. As it works out, Jesus comes to us through Mary, and we are to go to him the same way. “To Jesus through Mary.”
Father Junemann also says that, among other things, Mary helps us avoid losing grace. When the Father entrusted his Son to Mary, she took the responsibility very seriously. If God would entrust His Son to her, she must be very reliable. Can we do better than to imitate the Father when we entrust ourselves to Mary? Vatican II did not think so when it encouraged “everyone to entrust themselves to her maternal care.”
Once we entrust ourselves to Mary, we immediately benefit from a special exercise of her maternal care. Most especially, she helps keep us in grace. It’s not that we cannot sin after the entrustment, but rather that the devil will have a harder time if we cooperate with Mary than he otherwise would. Mary views it as a matter of Justice that she gives us special help after we have trusted her with our most precious possession.
True Devotion to Mary can be further explored by reading the book of this name by St. Louis de Montfort. It is a powerhouse of a book, and John Paul II exclaimed, “Reading it changed my life.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta also practiced Montfort’s True Devotion.
What two better witnesses could there be?
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