From Fr Lagrange "TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY
We are not speaking here of an entirely exterior, presumptuous, inconstant, hypocritical, and interested devotion, but of true devotion which St. Thomas defines as "promptness of the will in the service of God." [2] This promptness of the will, which should subsist despite aridity of the sensible part of the soul, inclines us to render to our Lord and His holy Mother the worship [Christ] [veneration, Mary] that is due them. [3] As Jesus is our Mediator with His Father, in the same way we should go to our Savior through Mary. The mediation of the Son throws light on that of His holy Mother.
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Another error consists in wishing to go to our Lord without passing through Mary. This was one of the errors of the Protestants. [Emphasis added.] And even some Catholics do not see clearly enough how expedient it is to have recourse to the Blessed Virgin in order to enter the intimacy of Christ. As St. Grignion de Montfort says, they know Mary "only in a speculative, dry, fruitless, indifferent manner. ... They fear that devotion toward her is abused and that injury is done to our Lord by paying excessive honor to His holy Mother. ... If they speak of devotion to Mary, it is less to recommend it than to destroy the abuses of it." [4] They seem to consider Mary "a hindrance in reaching Divine union," [5] whereas all her influence is exercised in order to lead us to it. It would be just as sensible to say that the holy Curé of Ars was a hindrance to his parishioners in their progress toward God.
To neglect the Mediators whom God has given us because of our weakness, shows a lack of humility. Intimacy with our Lord in prayer will be greatly facilitated by frequent recourse to Mary.
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The third degree of the true devotion to Mary, that proper to proficients, consists in consecrating oneself entirely to our Lord through her. In a clear explanation of this consecration, St. Grignion de Montfort says: "This devotion consists in giving oneself entirely to the Blessed Virgin in order to belong entirely to Jesus Christ through her. We must give her: ( 1) our body with all its senses and members (that she may keep them in perfect purity); (2) our soul with all its powers; (3) our exterior goods, present and to come; (4) our interior and spiritual goods, our merits, virtues, and good works, past, present, and future."
Consequently, if we offer our merits, properly so called, to the Blessed Virgin, it is not that she may give them to other souls, but that she may preserve them, make them fructify, and, if we should have the misfortune to lose them through mortal sin, that she may obtain for us the grace of so fervent a contrition that it may enable us to recover not only the state of grace, but the degree of grace lost; so that if we have lost five talents, we may recover these five, and not merely two or three.
......To have a clear understanding of this oblation, we must distinguish in our good works between what is incommunicable to others and what is communicable to other souls. What is incommunicable in our good works is merit, properly so called (de condigno), which constitutes a right in justice to an increase of charity and to eternal life. These personal merits are incommunicable; in this respect they differ from those of Jesus Christ Who, being constituted the head of humanity and our pledge, could merit for us in strict justice.....
What is communicable to others in our good works is congruous merit; it is also their satisfactory or reparatory value and their value as impetration or prayer.
By congruous merit, based not on justice, but on the charity or friendship which unites us to God (in jure amicabili), we can obtain graces for our neighbor. Thus a good Christian mother draws graces on her children by her virtuous life because God takes into consideration the intentions and good works of this generous mother. Likewise, we can also pray for our neighbor, for his conversion, his progress, for hardened sinners, the agonizing, the Souls in Purgatory.
Lastly, we can satisfy for others, we can voluntarily accept the punishment due to their sins, expiate them, as Mary did for us at the foot of the Cross, and thus draw the Divine mercy down upon them. We can also gain indulgences for the Souls in Purgatory, open to them the treasure of the merits of Christ and the Saints, and hasten their deliverance......
It has been objected that such an act strips us and does not pay our own debt, which will increase our Purgatory. This is the objection made by the devil to St. Bridget when she was preparing to make a similar act. Our Lord made the Saint understand that this is the objection of self-love, which forgets the goodness of Mary, who does not let herself be outdone in generosity. By thus stripping oneself, one receives the hundred-fold. And indeed the love to which this generous act testifies obtains for us even now the remission of part of our Purgatory.....
Others object, asking how, after having once and for all given all our prayers to Mary, we can pray especially for our parents and friends. The answer to this question is that the Blessed Virgin knows our duties of charity toward our parents and friends, and, should we forget to pray for them as we ought, she would remind us to do so. Moreover, among our parents and friends there are some who have a particular need of prayers, of which we are often ignorant; but Mary knows their needs and will thus, without our being aware of it, make these souls benefit by our prayers. We can always ask her to favor others.
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St. Grignion de Montfort says [8] that this road to God is easier, and nevertheless more meritorious, and consequently a more perfect, short, and sure road.
First of all, it is an easier way. "One can in truth," he says, "reach Divine union by other roads; but it will be by many more crosses and strange deaths, with many more difficulties, which he shall conquer with greater difficulty. He shall have to pass through dark nights, combats, and strange agonies, steep mountains, very sharp thorns, and frightful deserts. But by way of Mary, the passage is more sweet and tranquil. On this road, in truth, are great combats to be fought and great difficulties to be overcome; but this good Mother takes up her position so near her faithful servants to enlighten them in their darkness, to illumine them in their doubts, to sustain them in their struggles and difficulties that in reality this virginal road to find Jesus Christ is a road of roses and honey compared with other roads."
In 1891, an 81-year-old man who had spent the last twenty years as a
prisoner inside his own city — no army, no kingdom, no power any
government was obligated to respect — sat down and wrote a letter that
terrified the most powerful economic movement in human history.
Not with a threat. With an argument.
On one side of him stood the FACTORY — grinding men, women, and
children through sixteen-hour days for wages that couldn't keep them
alive, and calling it progress. On the other side stood the
REVOLUTION — Marx was dead, but his specter was marching across
Europe, promising the worker paradise on the far side of blood.
Two answers. Greed on one hand, envy on the other. And the whole
modern world was convinced you had to pick one.
Pope Leo XIII looked at both — and said: you are BOTH wrong. And I am
going to show you a third way that is older than both of you.
He called it Rerum Novarum.
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🏛️ THE MAGISTERIUM — 200 YEARS OF CRISIS
Episode 7 of ...
The Karmelo Anthony verdict is in, the Henry Nowak bodycam case has rocked the UK, and Belfast is burning — and across all three, one question keeps surfacing: is the law applied equally anymore? Tonight, Avoiding Babylon breaks down the verdict in the Austin Metcalf killing, the police handcuffing of a dying Henry Nowak, and the escalating unrest in Belfast, examining the two-tier justice system that seems to treat people differently depending on who they are.
We'll look at these three cases through a Catholic lens — not as isolated headlines, but as symptoms of a civilization that has abandoned equal justice and the moral order beneath it. This is about institutional accountability, media silence, and the collapse of the West, viewed from a higher vantage.
Join the livestream, sound off in the chat, and stand with us as we refuse to look away.
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When evangelical leader Charlie Kirk declared "the antidote to feminism is our Lady," Catholics across social media took notice. His surprising admission that "we as Protestants and Evangelicals under-venerate Mary" has sparked intense conversation about whether the prominent conservative commentator might be on a path toward Rome.
The statement represents a significant theological shift for Kirk, who went on to praise Mary as "a phenomenal example and a counter to so much of the toxicity of feminism in the modern era." While careful not to overstate what's happening, we examine this moment through a Catholic lens, exploring how devotion to Mary has historically led many Protestant thinkers toward Catholic teaching. Reports that Kirk has been attending weekday Mass with his wife add an intriguing dimension to the discussion.
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