True Devotion to Jesus, Through Mary
Today is the feast day of St. Louis de Montfort. St. Louis lived in the 17th and 18th centuries and his greatest contribution to the faith
was that of perseverance in the face of critique and encouragement of the Church to be devoted to Jesus through Mary. For many, this Catholic teaching is hard because they may see devotion to Mary as an unnecessary practice, and in some cases, as blasphemous. Others may see devotion to Mary as something less-than-manly. On the contrary! Devotion to Mary, which St. Louis stressed in both writings, words and deeds, is the way to grow incredibly close to her son, our Lord, Jesus. As men, we have a great deal to learn about obedience and can learn a lot from Mary’s example.
First, the Maryology… there’s too much that would go into giving a dissertation on Mary here, however, I will draw attention to her place in salvation history. Mary accepted God’s will in her life and enthusiastically followed. Through her ‘yes’, Christ came into the world. Christ means King, and Mary therefore is the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother sits with the King petitioning for His loyal servants. (1 Kings 1:19.) By her ‘yes’, we reap the benefits of our Saviour.
St. Louis shows us that the theological virtues are the way to TrueManhood. He set a great example for us to achieve the virtues of faith, hope and love. The world attempts to tell men that these virtues are feminine and unnecessary. Take a look at just about any piece of media and you will see a direct attack against these virtues. St. Louis demonstrated great courage in the face of opposition and persecution to strive for faith, hope and love.
Lastly, a brief word of encouragement in regards to the Rosary. Faithful Catholics don’t just ‘say’ the Rosary, we ‘pray’ the Rosary. The Rosary is a mixture of reciting communal prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, etc.) AND a deep meditation (simultaneously, mind you) of the mysteries of the Rosary. The mysteries point directly to Christ’s life and ministry, culminating in His saving work of dying on the cross for our sins – the greatest example of manliness we have! Pray on!
The Rosary is our sword in the battle of Good vs. Evil.
TrueMan up!
In a World of Negativity, Think Positive
There’s a lot of junk happening lately and lots of bad stuff happening in the world. We’ve got gigantic problems in Washington, we’re
fighting a war in the Middle East where there hasn’t been peace, well, ever. We’re constantly facing persecution for being “moral, ethical citizens”. Babies are being destroyed for the sake of convenience and preference. A good deal of the time, it doesn’t seem like anything is ever going to get better.
Look on the bright side, we have lots to be thankful for. Someone, somewhere has it much, much worse than you or me. Belly-achin’ and complainin’ about stuff isn’t going to make anything better. Yes, there are plenty of really horrible things taking place in our world, but they shouldn’t effect our daily lives from being focused and centered on Christ.
Imagine how badly St. Paul had it… beatings, being stoned, imprisonment and so on! (Read Philippians 2:12-18.)
Thinking positively helps us take a bad situation and turn it into something decent. There’s serious power in the reality of the power of positive thought. I encourage everyone to try three things over the next three days, and see if your attitude changes.
- Refrain from complaining.
- Find a positive side to everything.
- Do something kind for someone else at least once a day.
After three days, after you’ve tried these three things, comment back, or email, or post on Facebook, or wherever. I want to know what you experienced.
Man up!
