True devotion to Mary is constant and disinterested, Mary: Day 096

True devotion to Mary is constant and disinterested

St. Louis de Montfort identifies the last two of five characteristics of a genu- ine devotion to Mary.

True devotion to Our Lady is constant. It confirms the soul in good, and it doesn’t let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises. It makes it courageous in opposing the world in its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its weariness and pas- sions, and the Devil in his temptations. So a person truly devout to our Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable, scrupulous, nor timid.

It’s not that such a person doesn’t fall or change sometimes in the feelings of devotion, or in the amount of devotion itself. But when he falls, he rises again by stretching out his hand to his good mother. If he loses the taste and relish of devotion, he doesn’t disturb himself because of that; for the just and faithful devotee of Mary lives on the faith of Jesus and Mary, and not on sentiments and sensibilities.

Finally, true devotion to our Blessed Lady is disinterested; that is to say, it inspires the soul not to seek itself but God only, and God in his holy mother. A true devotee of Mary doesn’t serve that august queen from a spirit of greed and interest, nor for its own good, whether worldly, bodily, or spiritual; but exclu- sively because she merits to be served, and God alone in her. He doesn’t love Mary precisely because she does him good, or because he hopes in her; but because she’s so worthy of love.

It’s on this account that he loves and serves her as faithfully in his disgusts and dryness, as in his sweetness and feelings of fervor. He loves her as much on Calvary as he does at the marriage of Cana. Such a devotee of our Blessed Lady, who has no self-seeking in his service of her, is agreeable and precious in the eyes of God and of his holy mother! —St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
When I pray the Rosary or take part in other Marian devotions, can I honestly say that I meet these last two criteria that St. Louis provides here? If not, which aspects of my devotion do I need to correct or strengthen?

CLOSING PRAYER
From a prayer of St. Louis: I am all yours, and all that I have belongs to you, O my sweet Jesus, through Mary, your holy mother. O heart most pure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, obtain for me from Jesus a pure and humble heart.
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