JESUS LIVING IN MARY:
HANDBOOK OF THE SPIRITUALITY OF ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
PROVIDENCE
Summary
I. Providence in Itself.
II. Montfort’s Little Treatise on Providence:
1. The definition of providence;
2. The existence of providence;
3. The extent of providence;
4. Confidence in providence;
5. Qualities of trust in providence;
6. Final Prayer and Resolution;
7. Conclusion.
III. The Role of Providence in the Life of Saint Louis de Montfort:
1. Years preceding his ordination:
a. His departure from Rennes;
b. Trust in the midst of difficulties;
c. Life of surrender to providence.
2. Priestly life:
a. The Founder;
b. Pilgrimage to Rome;
c. Contradictions on all sides;
d. Living by providence;
e. Necessity of work.
IV. Providence in the Writings of Saint Louis de Montfort:
1. Letters,
2. True Devotion and Secret of Mary:
a. Mary’s role in God’s care of the universe;
b. The consecration.
3. The Rules;
V. Relevance of Montfort’s Teaching on Providence:
1. Insistence on the grandeur of God;
2. Abandonment to God’s will;
3. The need for human response.
All agree that Providence plays a principal if not dominant role in the
spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort. His well known phrase,
"Whatever happens I shall not be worried. I have a Father in heaven who
cannot fail me" (L 2), typifies his entire life. It can be said that
trust in Providence is so profound in Montfort’s being that it forms a
constitutive element of his personality. After a brief review of Church
doctrine on the subject, the saint’s teaching on Providence will be
summarized by first examining his canticle treatise on the subject, then
by studying his life of abandonment to divine Providence, and finally,
by investigating the emphasis on Providence in some of his writings.
I. PROVIDENCE IN ITSELF
"The universe was created in a ‘state of journeying’ (in statu viae)
toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has
destined it. We call ‘divine Providence’ the dispositions by which God
guides his creation toward this perfection: ‘By his Providence God
protects and governs all things which he has made, ‘reaching mightily
from one end of the earth to the other and ordering all things well.’
For ‘all are open and laid bare to his eyes,’ even those things which
are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures.’"1
Providence is, then, the concrete and immediate solicitude of God the
creator, present and dynamically active at the most profound roots of
everything which exists. The Catechism of the Catholic Church strongly
declares that "the sacred books powerfully affirm God’s absolute
sovereignty over the course of events: ‘Our God is in the heavens; he
does whatever he pleases’ (Ps 115:3). And so it is with Christ, ‘who
opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens’ (Rev 3:7). As
the book of Proverbs states: ‘Many are the plans in the mind of a man
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established’ (Pr
19:21)."2
There is nothing that escapes this sustaining, creative care of God,
for there is nothing real except through Him. It is evident that belief
in this immediate concern of God which directs every thing and everyone
to the final purpose of the universe—the manifestation of His Glory—
demands a firm faith. Evil in the world, which at times seems to be
overwhelming, both on an individual and collective basis, can well test
one’s faith in the good God’s continual, loving creation.
It is not that man’s input is to be disregarded. In fact, Providence
is the cause of man’s freedom and calls for its activity.3 The term
"Providence" expresses the relationship between God and His world; it is
a denial of deism (implying that God abandons the world to itself after
creation) and also of pure passivity (pushing dependence on God to the
extreme of denying man’s cooperation). Theology insists upon the action
of God working through man (concursus divinus), stressing always that
God alone is first cause and the sovereign master of His plan; He freely
wills man’s cooperation. The precise nature of this interplay is
impossible to gauge, most especially when it is a question of evil.
Faith demands belief in the All-Holy God’s sovereignty and at the same
time a clear affirmation of the freedom of man in this on-going
creation, unfolding towards the fulfillment of God’s reign. In the final
analysis, we can only repeat with the word of God: "We know that in
everything God works for good for those who love him" (Rm 8:28).
Because of this concrete and immediate loving care of divine
Providence for the least and the greatest events in history, "Jesus asks
for childlike abandonment to the Providence of our heavenly Father who
takes care of his children’s smallest needs."4 The Sermon on the Mount
speaks of our response to Providence: "Do not be anxious about your
life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor about your body,
what you shall put on . . . Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these . . . Therefore do not be
anxious . . ." (Mt 6:25–33).
In order to cover the topic as Saint Louis de Montfort explains it,
Providence will be taken in the broad sense, comprising not only God’s
orderly governance of the universe to its final goal, but also the
trustful response of human beings to God’s strong yet gentle care.
II. MONTFORT’S LITTLE TREATISE ON PROVIDENCE
The hymns of Saint Louis de Montfort are often profound, practical
catechetical sermons put to verse. For example, the first section of the
canticles covers subjects like Charity, Faith, Hope, Humility, Meekness,
Obedience, Patience, Virginity, etc. Hymn 28 follows this pattern; it is
a forty-four verse "little treatise on Providence," covering the meaning
of Providence (28:1), the existence of Providence (28:2–3), the extent
of Providence (28:4–5), the confidence we must have in Providence (28:6–
20), the qualities of Providence (28:21–24), and concluding with "Prayer
and Resolution" (28:25–44). The outline itself and the number of verses
allotted to each section make it evident that the missionary is not
writing a theoretical, speculative paper on the subject. Rather, his
goal is eminently practical. Only the first five verses are dedicated to
Providence as the governance of the universe by God. The other thirty-
nine stanzas deal with man’s response, and of these nineteen are devoted
to the final exhortation, "Prayer and Resolution."
1. The Definition of Providence.
As in many of his other teaching canticles, Father de Montfort begins
with a definition, putting into one verse the core of his understanding
of Providence: "Let us admire providence / Which leads everything to its
end, / This supreme prudence / And this sovereign order / Which knows,
rules and arranges / Strongly yet gently, / Everything even to the least
thing / Without any disorder." Montfort follows rather closely the
thought of Aquinas, who considers Providence the principal part of the
virtue of prudence, whose object is the proper ordering of things toward
their final end.5
There is a triple stress in the missionary’s general understanding of
Providence, found not only in this hymn but throughout his writings.
First, God is supreme. "God alone" is in charge, as the first cause of
the entire universe. Following a thought so basic to the French School
of spirituality, the missionary underlines the grandeur of God. His
approach is clearly theocentric (stressing God) not anthropocentric
(stressing man). Second, Montfort insists that there is nothing
whatsoever that acts "on its own," outside of God’s knowledge, orderly
rule, and arrangement of the universe. Even the farthest speck of
existence in outer space, Montfort would declare, is not only known by God
but is part of his orderly plan dynamically tending to the fulfillment of
God’s eternal purpose. Third, God’s Providence is carried out "fortiter et
suaviter," strongly and gently. In the first stanza, Montfort implicitly
points to the fundamental truth of his entire structure of spirituality:
"God Alone," and this God is Love. It is God who gently rules all and
who leads all to their end, and nothing can conquer God’s will. Yet,
God, who is Love, does not force: all is done from love and therefore
with infinite love. Montfort, the missionary to "the poor and the
simple" (TD 26), avoids all academic speculation on the question of the
supremacy of God’s governance of the universe and man’s free will.
In the margin next to the first stanza, this gospel troubadour writes:
"Essence and definition of providence." This core definition will be
expanded and explained in the following verses of the hymn. If we were
to limit our study to this stanza alone, it would appear that man plays
no role in the unfolding of God’s plan to its ultimate fulfillment. This
is far from his teaching, as can be seen not only in this hymn but
especially in his own way of life of "total abandonment to divine
Providence." His stress in the definition is on God. H 51 again praises
this care of God: "His tender Providence / Rules everything strongly, /
Conducts everything wisely, / Without anyone else even thinking about
it" (v. 3). And this fatherly concern is directed especially towards
man: "Not a leaf may fall / Without his express command, / Over
everything his Providence watches, / But in a special way over us" (H
11:29).
2. The Existence of Providence
The missionary’s first point, as clearly expressed in the margin of the
manuscript, is "the truth of Providence," which englobes six proofs that
divine Providence is a reality. His marginal notes indicate clearly what
they are: the order in the universe, the change of seasons, the
movements of the stars and planets in the skies, the testimony of
conscience, the punishment of even hidden sins, and the witness of every
creature that God is always present within it, mysteriously leading it.
His expressions—again reminiscent of Thomas Aquinas6—are easily
understandable by his audience. They encompass objective phenomena that
can be compressed into one—the orderliness of creation itself—and
subjective reasons that again can be resumed into one—mysteriously,
God’s ruling, orderly presence is experienced primarily by one’s
conscience. Saint Louis de Montfort is not arguing with atheists or
deists. On the other hand, he requests that one peacefully and sincerely
gaze into the magnificence of creation and into the depths of one’s
being. The missionary seems assured that such a person will come to
accept the mysterious Providence of God.7
3. The Extent of Providence
Nothing whatsoever escapes the sovereignty of God, declares Montfort;
nothing whatsoever is withdrawn from his supreme, orderly rule, this
continuous creation. "From the first of the archangels down to the least
worm," this wisdom of God knows and rules all in a hidden way, often
beyond our comprehension; He guides all things freely to the fulfillment
of the divine plan. "Over each thing, He watches / And the fools do not
think of it. / Without him, even the least leaf / Cannot fall to the
ground / He rules the thunder / The wind and the clouds in the air/ And
the dust of the earth / And the storm on the sea" (cf. H 11:29).
As mentioned above, intrinsic to the saint’s understanding of
Providence is the response of man to God’s loving care. The rest of the
canticle centers on this response.
4. Confidence in Providence
The longest explanatory segment in the hymn is devoted to the third
point, the confidence one should have in Providence. Fifteen motives are
brought forth by the missionary to inspire his people to a total
abandonment to God’s Providence. After recalling that God is a loving
Father who knows all our cares and wants us to hope in His love for us—
the first four motives—Father de Montfort presents nine reasons that are
nothing more than a hymnal paraphrase of Matthew 6:24–34, excerpted from
the Sermon on the Mount. In simple rhyme, impossible to capture in
English, Montfort repeats the words of Jesus: "Do not be anxious / Avoid
the troubles of pagans / Who make their primary concern / To love and
seek earthly goods. / Not having faith to believe, / They think of the
future; / Tomorrow, what will we have to drink, / To eat, to be clothed?
And please do not become / Anxious about your body / For your soul far
surpasses / Your body and your treasures. / It is your soul which I have
filled / With my infinite treasures/ How could you think that I would
forget / Your food and clothing? Consider, I beg you, / The birds in the
millions / Who do not have for their poor life / Any reserves or barns.
/ Your loving Father / Makes sure that they lack nothing; / And you,
worth far more, / Would ever lack what you need? . . . Look at the
magnificence / Of the lilies of the fields and all the flowers. /
Solomon in all his power / Never had such splendor. / If they have this
beautiful glory / Without working, without spinning, / You who are worth
so much more, / Must I not clothe you? . . . First and before all else /
Seek the eternal goods / The Lord and his justice, / His kingdom and his
love. / Win by this sacrifice / Your daily bread . . ." (vv. 9-14).
Montfort’s marginal note introducing the section on these words of Jesus
is revealing: "Especially we must try to understand this great secret of
the Savior which he came to teach us thereby doing us so great a favor:
Hope in God so faithful, Repose in the bosom of his fatherly goodness,
Without worrying about tomorrow." Providence is, in Montfort’s eyes, a
secret—a mystery—which motivated divine Wisdom to become incarnate in
order to share his beauty with us. The Sermon on the Mount of the
Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom appears to be for Saint Louis the strongest
motive for trusting totally in Providence.
Yet Jesus teaches us not only by words. The fourteenth motive
instructs us to follow the example of the Lord who so trusted in the
Providence of the Father, as did Our Lady and all the saints: "They had,
almost without any trouble / Food and clothing, / And that sovereign
meekness / Of perfect detachment (v. 19)."
The final motive is a reminder that to turn away from God’s Providence
and to put our trust in human support is not only harmful but "cursed
are those who so trust, /the Holy Spirit tells us, / But happy are those
who depend / on God alone through Jesus Christ (v. 20)." The loving care
of the Father is mediated to us through Our Lord Jesus Christ. For
Montfort, this is the only route to follow.
5. Qualities of trust in Providence
In the first quality of trust in God, Montfort declares that God can
accomplish His will even if man does not collaborate and in the same
breath puts emphasis on the divinely willed human cooperation in the
work of Providence. Similar to his discussion in SM 23 of Mary’s
universal mediation, the saint appears to be making a distinction
between what can be done in theory and the actual manner in which God
carries out His will.8 The first quality of any authentic abandonment to
God is, therefore: "Trust in Divine providence is prudent and
laborious." This is elucidated in stanza 21: "It is absolutely necessary
that the trust / Which you have placed in God / Be joined with prudence
/ According to time and place. / Even though God may accomplish an
event/ And that we do nothing, / Nonetheless, it is absolutely necessary
that we do it / And even that we work at it well." Montfort is
attempting to balance—without explaining—the Grandeur and Sovereignty of
God as primary cause of all things with the human response. It is clear
from Montfort’s life (as will be seen) that, in his eyes, this human
response is part and parcel of the entire picture of Providence; but he
also makes this belief explicit in LEW, where he twice boldly declares
with strong words that the human person is the "vicar on earth" of
Wisdom; it is in and through this vicar that the orderly governance of
the world is carried out (LEW 35, 41).9
The second quality of trust in God is repeated often in his works:
nothing whatsoever is to be withdrawn from this loving trust in God. It
must be universal, for "God is our Father and infinitely liberal." The
third quality is perhaps the most difficult: "Be calm . . . when your
plans are turned upside down (v. 23)." Becoming irritated when we don’t
get our way is harmful, he sings. His advice for those times when
everything seems to crash about us is, "to love God alone who loves you
so / And who never leaves you. / Throw yourself entirely into God."
Montfort is calling for a life lived in God alone so that when
Providence’s cross seems too heavy to bear, we will be sustained by our
faith conviction that infinite Love is intensely sharing life with us.
Finally, trust in God must be humble and thankful, recognizing His
tenderness.
6. Final Prayer and Resolution
The lengthy conclusion to this Hymn on Providence is a fiery call—
especially to the clergy—to make the interests of God one’s goal, and
not the interests of "the world": money, power, and prestige. In strong
language he rebukes those who ridicule him for his total abandonment to
God’s loving care: "Men of the church and lay folk / If you despise my
way of life / Know that I detest yours / Which leads to death. / Oh, if
you could only understand / My joy and your unhappiness, / Without
hesitation, from all your goods / You would detach your hearts" (v. 40).
His call to "voluntary poverty," to "lose ourselves in God," will, he
firmly believes, enable all to become apostles leading others to heaven.
For this vagabond saint, Providence implies not only a universal trust
in God but also a resolve to make God alone and His Righteousness our
only goal. It is always to be recalled that for Montfort "God Alone"
includes essentially loving service to all our brothers and sisters in
God. The motto of Saint Louis Marie is not only vertical (outstretched
to God) but also horizontal (outstretched to neighbor).
7. Conclusion
Some of the principal points stressed by Saint Louis de Montfort in this
little treatise on providence are: God, the creator of all things, is
Love and tenderness; He governs all out of love, leading everything,
infallibly yet freely, to the final goal; man is called upon to work
arduously (there is no quietism in Montfort) for the kingdom of God and
His justice. Providence implies God’s presence in all things as
continuing Creator, and also calls forth in us full trust, a total
abandonment to his divine plan, even and especially when nothing seems
to make sense.
III. THE ROLE OF PROVIDENCE IN THE LIFE OF SAINT LOUIS DE MONTFORT
The saint’s Providence Canticle does not detail his full thought on the
topic. It is clarified and made more complete by examining the manner
that he himself lived his teaching. His years preceding his ordination
and his life as a vagabond priest reveal his growing abandonment to the
Providence of God.
1. Years Preceding his Ordination
Three aspects of Montfort’s youth can be singled out as examples of his
total dependence on God alone.
a. His departure from Rennes.
At the age of nineteen, having completed eight years at the Jesuit
college in Rennes, Louis Grignion decided to pursue his theological
studies at Saint Sulpice in Paris. The young man bade goodbye to family
and friends at the bridge of Cesson at the outskirts of Rennes. The
event takes on deep symbolism. Having left all, he crossed the Cesson
bridge to a new life of total dependence upon divine Providence. So
convinced is he that God is truly his loving Father, that he gave to the
first beggars he met his money and baggage, and even exchanged clothes
with one of them. With total abandon he gave joyful, free expression to
his deep desire to experience the loving care of God. Begging for food
and shelter along the way, he walked to Paris arriving in the rags of a
beggar. He was finding his freedom in an active and responsible total
surrender to God’s loving, tender, intimacy.10 His friend John Blain
writes: "From that time forward he gave himself over to divine
Providence, leaving all his troubles behind, confidently and peacefully.
The thought that God might not care for him never even entered his head.
If he had a purse full of gold or a letter of credit for six thousand
pounds to be drawn on a bank in Paris, he could not have had more
security."11
b. Trust in the midst of difficulties.
Difficulties abounded as Louis Marie began his seminary studies. He had
been told that a friend of a friend would pay the boarding fee at the
seminary. When he arrived in Paris he discovered that the person had no
intention or ability to do so. Louis Marie was overjoyed to learn that
he would have to reside in a community "of the poor students who lived
in common quarters adjoining the seminary of St. Sulpice. It was a
sharing in the life of the poor and in the hidden life that Jesus led
for about thirty years in order to prepare Himself for his priestly
ministry."12 This becomes a pattern in his life: his plans are torn up
by God and God calls forth from Louis Marie total trust without
revealing the divine strategy. Examples of Louis Marie’s response of
total trust even in the midst of serious difficulties are numerous:
e.g., during his illness as a seminarian, which brought him to death’s
door; in his difficulties adjusting to seminary community life; in his
struggle to pay for room and board, which forced him to beg for
assistance and to work during the nights keeping vigil at wakes. His
trust in the Providence of God was often severely put to the test. His
solution was not to run back home to Rennes, but to trust even more in
God’s loving care, come what may.
c. Life of surrender to Providence.
However, there is another side to the young man’s trust in Providence,
which is underplayed by his more exuberant biographers. Montfort the
seminarian trusts in divine Providence; however, it is not a quietistic
abandonment. He knows that God’s infallible overall plan is realized
through creatures and therefore does not hesitate to ask for help or to
accept assistance when it is offered. He understands that divine
Providence calls upon him to work for his daily bread. The young Louis
Marie does not expect that his tuition will float down from heaven or
that he can do without professional help in his illness. Providence, as
he writes in his little treatise, demands prudence and hard work. This
is a trait that characterizes his life of surrender to Providence.
Trusting in God and doing nothing is not St Louis’ formula for total
abandonment to God. He searches for people to help pay the expenses at
the seminary, he seeks work to earn his tuition, he pours out his heart
to his superiors and directors in order to accomplish God’s will.
2. Priestly Life
Almost every aspect of Saint Louis de Montfort’s priestly ministry is
stamped with his amazing trust in divine Providence. Several facets of
his apostolate will be highlighted to substantiate this statement.
a. The Founder.
The founding of both the Daughters of Wisdom and the Company of Mary
illustrate the missionary’s radical abandonment to the will of God.
After inviting Marie-Louise Trichet to help at the Poitiers General
Hospital, he began to realize his dreams of a congregation of women who
would be representatives of the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom in quest of
the poor and the outcasts of society. However, he never approached this
project as if it were his own, or as a businessman attempting to launch
some new enterprise. He is convinced that he is no more than God’s
loving apostle. After giving Marie Louise a religious habit and
instructing her in the ways of Divine Wisdom, he left her for ten years,
keeping in touch only by letter. He had done what he could; moreover,
his ministry obliged him to move on. If the congregation is the will of
God, then it will definitely survive. It is not carelessness or a lack
of concern for Marie Louise; rather, the congregation of the Daughters
of Wisdom is too precious a gift of God for him to "take charge." God in
his Providence must oversee and bring to birth this new community.
His yearning to found a congregation of missionaries, proclaimers to
the poor of the reign of Christ through Mary, dates from the earliest
years of his priesthood. Yet aside from the faithful Brother Mathurin,
he found no one who would join him in fulfilling this hope. So convinced
is he that God’s Providence wills the congregation that he wrote an
ardent prayer for missionaries, a rule, and a letter to all the future
members of the Company of Mary before the community even existed (LCM).
His prayer for this Company indicates his stress on the Providence of
God: "[Almighty God], be mindful of your Congregation, for it is you
alone who must, by your grace, make it a living reality. If man is the
first to put his hand to the work nothing will come of it. If he
contributes anything of his own to what you are doing, the entire
undertaking will be warped and come down in ruins" (PM 26).13 Thwarted
in every way, he still was convinced that God desires such a
congregation of priests and brothers. At his death only two priests and
a few brothers were counted as his followers. None had taken vows. But
Saint Louis Marie dies assured that the Providence of God will raise up
the congregation.
b. Pilgrimage to Rome.
For Saint Louis de Montfort, Providence entails first discerning God’s
will and then carrying it out through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Providence, therefore, connotes obedience to God. Since God works
through creation, through events, and through others, Providence
includes obedience to God as manifested through His representatives.
First and foremost, this means obedience to Jesus as revealed in the
Scriptures and to Our Lady whose will is always one with her Son. It
means obedience to the Church, the Body of Christ, and in a special way
to its chief pastor, the vicar of Christ, the bishop of Rome. Caught up
in dilemmas on all sides, the young Father Louis from Montfort made a
decision to seek the advice of the Holy Father in order to discern God’s
will. His pilgrimage to the Holy City was made on foot even though war
was being waged between France and Italy—so confident was he that God
wanted him to consult the vicar of Christ. The words of Pope Clement XI
assured him that his itinerant preaching in western France was of God
and gave Montfort the confidence he needed. He spent the rest of his
life fulfilling the wish of the Holy Father, assured that it was God’s
providential will for him.
c. Contradictions on all sides.
Father de Montfort was faced with opposition that tested his total
abandonment to God’s Providence. Several times bishops forbade him to
preach in their dioceses. Unjust treatment at times brought him to
tears; God’s Providence was often a heavy cross to bear. He spoke with
confidants about the injustice that some local ecclesiastical
authorities inflicted upon him. Yet he obeyed, certain that God’s
Providence would bring good out of evil; he would even praise God for
the gift of such a cross.
Montfort’s interpretation of divine Providence is evidenced in his
attitude when told by the local bishop to destroy the Calvary at
Pontchateau on the very day it was to be blessed. He did not sit by and
watch the destruction of a project he firmly believed would strengthen
the faith of the people. The bishop was wrong and the missionary knew
it. He went immediately to the bishop to change the prelate’s mind. Only
after having done all he could to keep the Calvary intact —and having
failed to convince the bishop—did he accept the fact that in some
mysterious way, God’s inscrutable Providence is permitting the evil for
some greater good of the church. "We had hoped to build a Calvary here,"
he reportedly told the waiting crowd, "but God wills that we build it in
our hearts." And he set about obeying the bishop’s orders to destroy the
site.
d. Living by Providence.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of Montfort’s total abandonment to divine
Providence is his strange lifestyle: a vagabond missionary, with his few
belongings packed into a knapsack slung over his shoulder, a walking
stick with a cross or statue of Our Lady on its top, moving from town to
town freely proclaiming God’s reign. He is absolutely certain that
God’s fatherly care will always envelop him, giving him food to eat,
water to drink, and a place to sleep. He describes this life ā la
Providence in one of his canticles: "With stick in my hand / My bare
feet on the road, / I speed through the land / For I carry no load. Like
a bird in the tree / With no worry or care / My heart is quite free /
For no burden I bear. / With no cash for tomorrow / I live day by day /
And I know that I follow / The far better way" (a paraphrase of a few
verses of H 144).
e. Necessity of work.
Although Saint Louis de Montfort’s trust in Providence knew no bounds,
he never interpreted God’s loving care as a dispensation from personal
work. Quite the contrary: it was only by laborious seeking that God’s
will unfolded; it was only by steady, painful toil that God’s will is
fulfilled. When his sisters were in need, he did not only pray for them.
He sought help, requesting aid from some wealthy women, including Madame
de Montespan, the former mistress of Louis XIV. He insisted that the
founding of the Company of Mary was God’s work, but he recognized that
this meant that he himself must be God’s hands in forming the community
by writing the Rule, by seeking recruits, and by begging his friend,
Claude Poullart des Places, to direct seminarians to his proposed
congregation. Preaching God’s word, as Providence willed him to do, in
no way freed him from laborious preparation, as his Book of Sermons
testifies. Total abandonment to God’s Providence implies action on our
part.
IV. PROVIDENCE IN THE WRITINGS OF SAINT LOUIS DE MONTFORT
The direct and implied references to Providence abound in the writings
of Saint Louis de Montfort. In addition to his cantique on Providence
studied above, there are passages relating to Providence especially in
his Letters, in his Triptych (PM, RM, LCM), and in his Marian classics,
TD and SM.
1. Letters
Ten of the thirty-four letters of Father de Montfort which have been
preserved explicitly mention "Providence." Letter 7, addressed to his
favorite sister, Guyonne-Jeanne (whom he affectionately called Louise),
contains the most references. Its theme is to prompt the young girl not
to be so concerned about the future: "What God wants of you, my dear
sister, is that you should live each day as it comes, like a bird in the
trees, without worrying about tomorrow. Be at peace and trust in divine
providence and the Blessed Virgin and do not seek anything else but to
please God and love him . . . if you serve God and his Holy Mother
faithfully you will want for nothing in this world or the next." Even
his early letters, written as a seminarian, refer to the loving care God
constantly shows him. When Father de la Barmondičre, his superior and
director at the seminary, died, the young Louis Grignion’s future as a
seminarian was placed in serious jeopardy. In this difficult situation,
he wrote to his uncle priest: "I do not know how things will go, whether
I shall stay or leave, as Father de la Barmondičre’s last will and
testament has not yet been made known. Whatever happens I shall not be
worried. I have a Father in heaven who can never fail me. He brought me
here, he has kept me here until now and he will continue to treat me
with his usual kindness. Although I deserve only punishment for my sins,
I never stop praying to God and rely completely on his providence" (L
2). Several months later, the young seminarian wrote again to his uncle,
informing him that "God, in his loving providence, without my ever
having thought of it," had indeed taken care of him through the
intermediary of some benefactors and that he was able to continue his
studies at St. Sulpice. Yet God’s loving Providence never forces: "When
God asks his creatures for anything, he asks gently leaving them
entirely free." But to delay in fulfilling God’s will places us in
danger, for "the longer we delay in responding to his gentle request,
the less we hear his voice" (L 30). "I only want to do God’s will" (L 6)
is a primary theme of all his correspondence, coupled with a complete,
loving trust in God (L 8, 9, 10, 25, 33).
2. True Devotion and Secret of Mary
The originality of Montfort on the theme of Providence rests especially
in his understanding of the place of Mary in God’s governing of the
universe in and through the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom. His Marian
classics, TD and SM, are the principal sources for his Marian theology
and also for the foundations of the consecration to Jesus-Wisdom through
Mary, which encompasses a total abandonment to God’s Providence.
a. Mary’s role in God’s care of the universe.
That Providence is to be attributed to God alone as primary cause, the
missionary leaves no doubt. However, the Lord of all makes use of others
in the governing of the universe. Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate
Wisdom, true God and true man, is in his very reality the essential and
only mediator (cf TD 61). He alone is King "by nature" (TD 38), he alone
is "the beginning and the end of all things," (TD 61) he alone is God’s
plan itself and its fulfillment, for through Wisdom and for Wisdom all
things are created and governed (LEW 31–38). "After creating all things,
Eternal Wisdom abides in them to contain, maintain, and renew them. It
was this supremely perfect beauty who, after creating the universe,
established the magnificent order we find there. It was Wisdom who
separated, arranged, evaluated, augmented and calculated everything"
(LEW 32).
We can summarize the saint’s thought on Mary and Providence by piecing
together various elements of his teachings on God, Jesus, and Our Lady.
Because the Trinity freely chose Mary to be the "Yes" of the universe in
accepting and, in this sense, bringing about the Incarnation, Our Lady
plays a unique role in every aspect of salvation history (TD 14–36). It
is through her consent that our redemption, the Eternal and Incarnate
Wisdom, came to be (TD 16). The Incarnation, as the first of all
mysteries, is the pattern of all the works of grace (TD 248). God comes
to us in Jesus Christ who is always and everywhere the son of Mary, the
fruit of her representative faith (TD 44).
Montfort insists then that Jesus, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom,
"shares his power with his holy mother" (TD 76). "Such is the will of
the Almighty who exalts the humble, that the heavens, the earth and hell
itself, willingly or unwillingly, must obey the commands of the humble
Virgin Mary. For God has made her queen of heaven and earth, leader of
his armies, keeper of his treasures, dispenser of his graces, worker of
his wonders, restorer of the human race, mediatrix on behalf of men,
destroyer of his enemies and faithful associate in his great works and
triumphs" (TD 28; H 77:8, 81:6). The saint underlines, therefore, that
"Whatever belongs to Jesus by nature, belongs to Mary by grace" (TD 74).
The governing of the universe takes place through Jesus and belongs to
him by nature as the incarnate Son of God. Mary, the inseparable
companion of Jesus, even "of his glory and of his power in heaven and on
earth" (TD 74), shares by grace in this role of the Incarnate Wisdom.
Providence, then, governs us through Jesus Christ in union with his
mother, Mary.
The same conclusion is reached when considering Montfort’s teaching on
the spiritual maternity. Mary is truly the mother of the Christ who is
in himself the goal, the fulfillment of God’s Providence (TD 61). As the
Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit (SM
68), she, the living Yes of all creation to God’s desire to espouse us
in Christ, is the spiritual mother and queen of the universe (TD 37–40).
Mary is, then, the Mother of the whole Christ, head and members (TD 32–
33), Mother of the fulfillment of God’s plan when all shall be one in
Christ Jesus in the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God alone. As
the true Mother of all, and as the Yes of the human family, she is the
mediatrix of the gifts of God. The gift of God’s loving care, which
governs all things to their goal, comes to us in Christ Jesus through
Mary, as the eternal surrender of the cosmos to God’s plan, Jesus the
Lord. In this sense, Our Lady is, in Saint Louis de Montfort’s eyes,
intrinsic to the mystery of Providence.
b. The consecration.
Saint Louis de Montfort’s "Act of consecration to the Eternal and
Incarnate Wisdom through the hands of Mary" (LEW 223-227) is a
recognition of God’s Providence and of a total loving surrender to his
purpose. His design for the universe is to incorporate all things into
the Beloved, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, through Mary. The
consecration, an act of latria, is addressed ultimately to the God-Man,
Jesus Christ, the goal of all creation. However, in light of the
Incarnation, it is evident for Montfort that Jesus the goal comes to us
and we to him through Mary (TD 1); she is the unique means of union with
Christ. The consecration is, then, the loving acceptance of this
providential plan of God—Jesus our goal, Mary the unique means—and the
consequent emptying of all the idols set up in its place. This was done
in Baptism (at least implicitly); the consecration is the renewal of our
baptismal promises, accepting lovingly and freely the governance of the
universe, and in particular of our own life, the way that God so wills.
For Montfort, the more that we live this baptismal consecration
whereby we freely accept divine Providence, the more intense our
freedom. Liberty is in direct proportion to our surrender as slaves of
love to God’s plan in Christ Jesus. It is the consecration, the total
abandonment to God’s Providence, that sets us free; fabricating our own
plans outside the Lord’s is enslavement.
As Montfort outlines in the effects of the consecration (TD 213–25),
Mary prompts all of us to surrender actively and responsibly to God’s
will for us; she strengthens us by her maternal intercession so that our
response may resemble hers, a fiat to God’s mysterious ways (TD 201–12;
214–16).
3. The Rules
Abandonment to divine Providence is an important element in the Rules
the saint drew up for his congregations. In the first number of his Rule
for the community of women, he calls the congregation the Daughters of
Providence, finally erasing that title and substituting Daughters of
Wisdom. His insistence on total trust in Providence is apparent.
Moreover, he writes that the Sisters "abandon themselves, in everything,
to the cares of divine providence which will help them in the manner and
time that providence so wills." In his Hymn to the Daughters of Wisdom,
he sings: "Establish everything on providence / Without thinking of
tomorrow. / Disregard that so-called prudence/ Which wants a sure
support" (H 149:2).
It is especially in the Triptych of the Company of Mary that the saint
stresses trust in the Providence of God. The PM is a clear indicator of
Montfort’s understanding of total abandonment to divine Providence. With
an incredible boldness, he begs God to create this congregation that he
so ardently desires and that he so strenuously tries to establish; yet
he recognizes that it must be God’s will, it must be the result of God’s
love. If man takes charge instead of God, the entire project is lost (PM
26). He prays for a group of men whose preaching will "reform the church
and renew the face of the earth," who will be apostles ushering in the
kingdom of Christ through Mary. In order to do this, they must be "men
according to your own heart, O Lord, who without any will of their own .
. . carry out your desires . . . men always at your hand, always ready
to obey you" (PM 8, 10), ". . . men abandoned to your providence" (PM
20), ". . . the Lord’s bodyguard of hand-picked men" (PM 30), known for
their "abandonment to providence and their devotion to Mary" (PM 24).
In order to enter the Company of Mary, a candidate must surrender all
material goods and rely totally on divine Providence: "Priests and
Brothers alike must not accept even simple benefices and temporal
possessions, even those they may inherit. If they did have any before
entering the Company, they must return the benefices to those who
presented them. What they inherited must be given to their relatives or
to the poor, having first taken the advice of a good counselor. They
thus exchange their paternal inheritance for one which God himself gives
them, namely, the inexhaustible inheritance of his divine providence"
(RM 5). "Their sole resource must be God’s providence . . . the
community will supply all that is necessary in the way of food and
clothing, depending on what providence supplies to the community" (RM
10-11). "The missionaries will not become settled in any one place, as
communities, even the most regular, normally do. Instead of this
undesirable stability they will be more solidly grounded in God alone,
provided that they always yield themselves without reserve to the care
of providence" (RM 12). "They must rely on divine providence for all
things. God would sooner work a miracle than fail to supply the needs of
those who trust in him. They are not, however, forbidden to mention in
public or private their state of dependence on providence and the rules
they follow in this matter" (RM 14).
The short but powerful LCM is an appeal to all the professed of the
congregation to live a life of poverty, totally trusting in divine
Providence. The founder places these words on the lips of the eternal
Father: "I have graven you on my heart and on the palms of my hands in
order to cherish and defend you because you have put your trust in me
and not in people, in my providence and not in wealth" (LCM 3). St.
Louis de Montfort then himself addresses each member of the community:
"These are the marvelous promises which God has made to you through his
prophets. They will be yours provided you put all your trust in him
through Mary. Entirely dependent as you are on God’s providence, it is
up to him to support you and to increase your numbers . . . fear nothing
whatsoever and sleep in peace in your Father’s arms" (LCM 4). Saint
Louis de Montfort again combines two elements in his explanation of
living in total abandonment to divine Providence: complete trust in God
joined with prudence and hard work: "earn your bread by the sweat of
your brow" (LCM 10).
V. RELEVANCE OF MONTFORT’S TEACHING ON PROVIDENCE
Saint Louis de Montfort’s theological, ecclesial, and general cultural
context differ greatly from that of contemporary society. Not
surprisingly, his teaching runs counter to several present currents. The
autonomy of humankind in formulating its destiny is a characteristic of
many modern men and women of the First World (the industrialized
countries). The marvelous technological advances with repercussions most
especially in First World society have influenced some to disregard, for
all practical purposes, God’s governing presence in every particle of
creation. With the emphasis on rugged individualism, the notion that God
has an infallible plan for the human race appears outlandish. As always,
the personal and collective calamities and perennial injustices raise
serious doubts in many minds that God’s loving care is a reality.
Montfort’s insistence that God governs all things in Christ Jesus
through Mary and that we should have total abandonment to the designs of
so loving a Father appears to many rather quaint, at best.
Without denying the need to update the expressions of Saint Louis
Marie, it must be said that Montfort offers a healthy confrontation with
contemporary thought. Three points especially should be noted which make
his teaching relevant for today’s society.
1. Insistence on the Grandeur of God
Montfort’s stress on the absolute supremacy of God is needed in a neo-
Pelagian world. The missionary’s teaching recalls not only the Sermon on
the Mount but also the words of Paul: "For he has made known to us in
all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose
which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to
unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him,
according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to
the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined
and appointed to live for the praise of his glory" (Ep 1:9–12).
Connected to this stress on the grandeur of God is the saint’s
emphatic teaching that God’s greatness does not distance Him from
creation. Rather, it is precisely His Majesty which enables Him to be so
intimately present within us. For the Omnipotence of God is love. This
loving presence in every particle of creation—most especially in human
persons, directing all freely to the final goal—is an important lesson
for a society so filled with fear of tomorrow while attempting to handle
burdensome responsibilities without God. Montfort appears to be crying
out to the present generation: "You are loved by God who dwells within
you, there is purpose in life, your goal is glory with Christ, the son
of Mary; do not be frozen by fear."
2. Abandonment to God’s Will
Montfort calls upon us to be who we really are. To ignore God’s will and
to do whatsoever one pleases, to withdraw Christ from the goal of all
creation and set up aims with no relation to the Lord, is to live a
counterfeit existence. "Seek the Lord and His righteousness, His Kingdom
and His Love," (H 28:14) is the only prescription for a fully human
life. Such is the meaning of abandonment to God’s will. The missionary
is a realist and at times will call this surrender—nothing more than an
acceptance of our reality—a heavy cross. He himself experienced grave
and painful illnesses, extreme poverty with all its consequences,
injustices from authorities, betrayal by friends, the death of loved
ones, apparent failure after failure; and yet there was in the midst of
his tears a deep peace if not a joyful light-heartedness. He knew that
in some mysterious way God’s will was being accomplished; he was
convinced of the loving care of the Trinity who continually shared life
with him and rejoiced in the experience of the presence of Mary. "Thy
will be done," was his formula for peace. He calls this total
abandonment to God. It is a lesson that every generation must constantly
learn.
Saint Louis’s teaching on the consecration to the eternal and
incarnate Wisdom through Mary encompasses total abandonment to divine
Providence. Seen in this light, the consecration with its liberating
"slavery of love" takes on a clearer and more urgent meaning.
3. The Need for Human Response
Taken out of context, excerpts from the saint’s teaching may appear to
neglect human cooperation and to over-stress trust in God, as if we were
to do nothing, but such is definitely not his thought. Providence, as
God’s continual creation, is the ground and source of our freedom, which
must be used to promote the glory of God. True, the missionary’s stress
is on God’s sovereign, loving care; yet that means that we are to be
open to that care by hard work. Following his example, that implies
boldly living the gospel, protesting injustices, standing up for the
truth even at the cost of one’s life, seeking help and advice,
creatively proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to the poor and the
marginalized. To be open to the guiding Spirit is to be filled with zeal
for God’s glory. This is, for Montfort, intrinsic to a balanced
understanding of "abandonment to God." His teaching offers a corrective
to any quietistic understanding of the response to God’s loving care.
Notes:
(1) CCC 302. The Catechism is quoting Vatican Council I, Dei
Filius 1 (DS 3003) and also Ws 8:1 and Heb 4:13. (2) CCC 303. (3) Cf.
Ernst Niermann, Providence, in Smun, 1314–15: "There is no rivalry or
competition in the relation between divine and creaturely freedom.
Divine freedom is the transcendent cause which enables the creatures to
be free. The exact relationship is a controversial question in
theology." (4) CCC 305. Cf. also CCC 322: "Christ invites us to filial
trust in the providence of our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 6:26–34), and St.
Peter the apostle repeats: ‘Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares
about you’ (1 Pet 5:7) cf. Ps 55:23)." (5) Summa Theologiae, II-II, 49,
6 and ad 1. (6) Ibid., I, 22, 2. (7) Saint Louis de Montfort seems to
refer to the text of Paul: "For what can be known about God is plain to
them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the
world his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity has been
clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without
excuse" (Rom 1:19–20). (8) "God, as the absolute Master, can give
directly what he ordinarily dispenses only through Mary, and it would be
rash to deny that he sometimes does so. However, St. Thomas assures us
that, following the order established by his divine Wisdom, God
ordinarily imparts his graces to men through Mary." Saint Louis de
Montfort is discussing the question of Mary, mediatrix of all graces.
All his writings insist on this privilege, and SM 23 must be read within
that context and not considered as some momentary hesitation about the
universality of Mary’s mediatrix role. The text of Montfort is to be
understood in the light of LG 60, 62. (9) Cf. CCC 307: "To human beings
God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by
entrusting them with the responsibility of ‘subduing’ the earth and
having dominion over it (cf. Gn 1:26–28)." (10) Cf. Grandet 8–9. (11)
Blain, 24. (12) B. Papāsogli, Montfort: a Prophet for Our Times,
Edizioni Monfortane, Roma 1991, 61. (13) Cf. ibid., 414.
Taken from: Jesus Living in Mary: Handbook of the Spirituality of St.
Louis de Montfort (Litchfield, CT: Montfort Publications, 1994).
Provided courtesy of the Montfort Fathers Š All Rights Reserved.
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