True Devotion
By
LANCE PATRICK ENAD,
lancivspatricivs@gmail.com
January 18, 2019
In his book, “True
Devotion to Mary,” – which every serious catholic should read – St.
Louis de Montfort explains that True Devotion to our Lady is
interior, tender, holy, constant, and disinterested.
Perhaps, we who labor for
our salvation can use these characteristics for our benefit. It
seems that these characteristics can be used as a checklist for
devotion in general.
True devotion is holy.
First, this would mean that true devotion (to the Blessed Sacrament,
to the saints, etc.) would lead us to God. True devotion to Mary,
for example, would lead us to a deeper relationship with Jesus
Christ. Second, this would mean that true devotion would lead us to
abhor sin thereby loving God more. A person habitually in the state
of mortal sin, for example, who prays the rosary devoutly every day,
would one day either give up mortal sin or the rosary.
True devotion is interior.
This means that true devotion comes from the heart and does not
consist merely of reciting prayers and waving hands.
True devotion is constant.
This means that true devotion is not impulsive but is stable. A
person who has a devotion to our Lady, for example, ought to have a
fixed program for his devotional acts and should be faithful to
that. This could mean praying the rosary every day.
True devotion is
disinterested. This means that a true devotee does not have -or at
least is trying to do away- with self-serving motives but is
selfless in doing his devotions and is motivated by love.
True devotion is tender.
This means that true devotion entails childlike confidence. True
devotion to our Lady, for example, means childlike trust in our
Lady.
Moreover, St. Louis de
Montfort continues to explain that True Devotion to Our Lady,
consists in the imitation of our Lady’s virtues. I suppose this
applies to all other devotions. Devotion to the Sto. Niño for
example, would consist in imitating the virtues of our Lord in his
childhood –meekness, humility, obedience to the Father, and all
those virtues a good meditation on the Childhood of Our Lord will
tell us. The Sto. Niño is also viewed as a symbol of the Christian
Faith in our country. Devotion to the Sto. Niño then would compel
the devotee to study the faith, to be firmer in their conviction to
live and die in the catholic faith.
Let the words of St. Louis
de Montfort be an examination of conscience for us. Are these
characteristics present in my devotion? Am I trying to imitate the
virtues of the Child Jesus? Do I study the my Faith? Do I read the
catechism? If by the end of your examination you find out that your
devotion fails to meet this, resolve to try hard –an harder if
needed- to meet this aided by the grace of God. By the end of your
life, having done these things, you would have been a better person
–that is, more identical to Jesus Christ-, a better catholic, a
virtuous person, and, by the graces God bestows upon you because of
your devotion, a person meriting a canonization.