Praying with St. Louis de Montfort (A sample)

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

The Holy Week cantiques of St. Louis de Montfort  form a sustained series of meditations upon the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  Montfort Publications is presently in the process of preparing a small devotional book that includes excerpts from these hymns as meditation aids for each bead of the Sorrowful Mysteries.  In this way, it is our hope that Fr. de Montfort himself can serve as a retreat master for those who unite their praying of these mysteries with the words of his reflective prayer.  Below is a sample – the first Sorrowful Mystery presented in the words of St. Louis de Montfort’s hymn on the Agony of Jesus.

THE FIRST SORROWFUL MYSTERY
THE AGONY

We offer you, Lord Jesus this first decade in honor of your mortal agony in the Garden of Olives, and we ask of you by this Mystery and through the intercession of your holy Mother contrition for our sins. Amen.

It is I who am the guilty one,
And Jesus is the innocent.
My groaning declares
How miserable I am.

Our Father ….

Jesus sees hideous death
Approaching with menace,
Seeking to conquer him
Even though he is the Almighty.

Hail Mary….

He sees all of the offenses,
The indifferences, of ungrateful man,
The contempt of his sufferings,
Of his death and of his blood.

Hail Mary ….

He sees himself insulted
Even in the Most Blessed Sacrament
That he shall leave us as a pledge
Of the burning ardor of his love.

Hail Mary ….

Seeing these things, he calls out
With a voice weakened and diminished:
O my Father, I ask of you:
Exempt me from these crosses.

Hail Mary ….

But this gentle Savior,
Brimming over with charity,
Says: My Father, I wish to do
All that your holy will would ask of me.

Hail Mary ….

In this mysterious agony,
When he is ready to expire,
The great God permits that an angel
Should come and reassure him.

Hail Mary ….

O Christians! Who can comprehend
The terrible intensity of his torment?
Do you see his feeble body
Sweating forth great drops of blood?

Hail Mary ….

Will we be, then, without feeling?
Will we be not touched at all
In seeing the terrible evils
That our sins inflict upon him?

Hail Mary ….

O my piteous, wretched Jesus,
Why must you suffer such great torment,
For you truly are not guilty
But are just and wholly innocent?

Hail Mary ….

Jesus, plead with your Father
That he have mercy on us all,
Or that he show forth his anger
Against us and not on you.

Hail Mary ….

Forgive us for this great suffering,
O Jesus agonizing,
For our crimes and our offenses
Have placed you in this torment.

Glory be ….

May the graces of the Mystery of the Agony of Jesus come down into our souls. Amen.

 

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New Translation – Hymn on the Agony of Jesus

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

Among his collected Cantiques, St. Louis de Montfort composed what might be termed a series for Holy Week that features a hymn for each day of the week from Sunday through Saturday, with each hymn focusing on a different aspect of the Passion of the Lord.  Last year as part of my own Lenten discipline I had been taking some time to read and to reflect upon these hymns.  In doing so, I had also decided to try my hand at a bit of direct translation of these poetic texts.  This year as Holy Week approaches I have decided to revisit this project and to take some to prayerfully consider those hymns once again and, in doing so, to engage in a bit of additional work in translation.

As I noted in a previous post:  It is a difficult thing to translate a hymn well as being too slavishly literal will cause one lose the poetic beauty of the original, while taking too much license in rephrasing the original will cause one to lose the author.  It is my hope that the following translation of Fr. de Montfort’s hymn for Sunday, which treats of the Agony of the Lord in the Garden of Olives, manages to avoid both errors while remaining true to the original.

For Sunday
Cantique 1

JESUS AGONIZING

Refrain:
It is I who am the guilty one,
And Jesus is the innocent.
My groaning declares
How miserable I am.
God Alone.

Jesus sees hideous death
Approaching with menace,
Seeking to conquer him
Even though he is the Almighty.
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

He sees all of the offenses,
The indifferences, of ungrateful man,
The contempt of his sufferings,
Of his death and of his blood.
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

He sees himself insulted
Even in the Most Blessed Sacrament
That he shall leave us as a pledge
Of the burning ardor of his love.
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

Seeing these things, he calls out
With a voice weakened and diminished:
O my Father, I ask of you:
Exempt me from these crosses.
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

But this gentle Savior,
Brimming over with charity,
Says: My Father, I wish to do
All that your holy will would ask of me.
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

In this mysterious agony,
When he is ready to expire,
The great God permits that an angel
Should come and reassure him.
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

O Christians! Who can comprehend
The terrible intensity of his torment?
Do you see his feeble body
Sweating forth great drops of blood?
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

Will we be, then, without feeling?
Will we be not touched at all
In seeing the terrible evils
That our sins inflict upon him?
It is for us, O sinners,
That he endures these pains.

O my piteous, wretched Jesus,
Why must you suffer such great torment,
For you truly are not guilty
But are just and wholly innocent?
Yes, it is us, O sinners,
Who deserve these pains.

Jesus, plead with your Father
That he have mercy on us all,
Or that he show forth his anger
Against us and not on you.
It is us, O sinners,
Who deserve these pains.

Forgive us for this great suffering,
O Jesus agonizing,
For our crimes and our offenses
Have placed you in this torment.
Ah! It is us, O sinners,
Who deserve these pains.

Translated by Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM
© 2013.  All rights reserved.

Posted in Cantiques, Devotional Prayers, Louis de Montfort, Translations | Leave a comment

A Montfortian prayer for the Year of Faith

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

The following prayer is taken from the final section of St. Louis de Montfort’s 6th cantique which sings of “The Lights of Faith.”  Fr. de Montfort would often conclude his hymns with a prayer and these prayers, as is the case here, often hold within them some real treasures of spiritual insight and devotional sentiment.  Our Founder’s words here giving fitting voice to the dispositions that our present observation of the Year of Faith is meant to produce within the hearts of the all the members of the Body of Christ.  St. Louis de Montfort recognized the great importance of turning regularly to the Lord in prayer so that one’s faith may be strengthened.  This is why he introduces the following prayer with the words:

“Say this prayer often:”

Increase my faith, Lord,
So that it goes entirely
Through my spirit, even to my heart.

Give me the faith, simple and pure
That believes all without seeing or feeling,
In spite of the senses and nature
Giving them contradiction.

Pray for me, faithful Virgin,
Only increase my faith
So that in the life eternal
I may see you clearly in God.

I believe with a faith very compliant,
With all my heart, without question,
All that the holy Church believes
Because it is God who has said it.

I believe that which the holy Father says,
In spite of the sharp minions of hell,
He is my leader and my light,
I see not a thing, he sees very clearly.

Lord, in all I want to believe you,
But increase always my faith
So that I may see in glory
More clearly that which I believe

Let rumble the sweet thunder
Of your gospel in all places,
That faith throughout the world
May make your name glorious.

© 2013 Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM.

Posted in Cantiques, Devotional Prayers, Louis de Montfort, Translations | 1 Comment

Fr. de Montfort on the true greatness of St. Peter

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

As we celebrate the election of Francis I to the Chair of St. Peter as our new holy father, it may be profitable  to consider a couple little known references in the writings of St. Louis de Montfort to the great Prince of Apostles.  For Fr. de Montfort, the greatest of all things is to share in the Mystery of the Cross of Jesus Christ and it is from this perspective that he asserts in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross:

“Saint Peter and Saint Paul are more glorious in dungeons, wearing leg irons, than in rising to the third up to the third heaven, and in receiving the keys of paradise.”

and, again, in his 19th Cantique:

“The bonds of Saint Peter
gave him greater honor
than from being upon the earth
the Vicar of the Savior.”

In speaking this way, St. Louis de Montfort, whose devotion to the successors of St. Peter was ardent and well-known, was not in any way seeking to diminish the dignity of the position of Vicar of Christ, but rather, was indicating the root of the greatest glory of their office.  The true greatness of any servant of God, and even more so for him who is the servant of the servants of God (as we call the holy father), springs from the depth of his unity and the strength of his embrace of the victorious and saving Cross of the Lord. The greater one’s role and position within the Body of Christ, his embrace of and union with the Cross of the Savior must be all the stronger and all the deeper.

We pray, therefore, that Francis I may have that great strength of heart and boldness of spirit, as well as that deep humility and faith-filled obedience, that make possible a truly profound union with the Mystery of the Cross.  We pray as well that he may always find the Cross of the Lord to be a true Tree of Life that bears sweet and abundant fruit in his life and, through his vocation and leadership, in the life of the Church.

Mary, Queen of all hearts, pray for him!

St. Louis de Montfort, pray for him!

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Spanish Video: Las Verdaderas y Falsas Devociones a la Virgen María

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

Aquí está el video de una presentación por Padre Hugo, SMM, que trata de las devociones falsa a María santísima y las características de la verdadera devoción a la santísima Virgen en los escritos del san Luis María de Montfort. La presentación estaba en la iglesia Sta. María Puerta del Cielo en Ozone Park, NY.

(This is the Spanish language presentation given by Fr. Hugh at St. Mary Gate of Heaven Church concerning true and false devotion to Our Lady.)

Posted in Preaching, Spanish, True Devotion, Video | 1 Comment

Hidden Treasures – A Picture and a Prayer

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

cantiques01While browsing through the resources in our archives, I came across a very old collection of the Mission Cantiques (Songs) that would have been used by our early missionaries in their preaching in Western France.  Early collections like this are important sources for the cantiques that Fr. de Montfort composed as well as for insight into the manner in which he and his successors went about giving a parish mission.  This particular book features a beautiful engraving of the Death of the Lord on the Cross and a short prayer that was to be said (or perhaps was sung) during the missions immediately before the preaching of the sermon to dispose both the missionary preacher and the faithful who came to hear the preaching to open themselves fully to receive and retain the words of life in all their power.

Here is a quick translation of the prayer:

O Holy Spirit, give us your light.
Come to us to inflame us all,
To order our lives,
To form our prayers .
Without you we cannot do any good.

Pray for us, Blessed Virgin Mary.
Obtain grace for us from the Savior
To listen to these words of life
And to keep them in our hearts,
Just as you do.

Posted in Company of Mary, Pictures, Translations | 1 Comment

New Publication: The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary Montfort Publications is preparing to release a newly reformatted and typeset version of The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Little Crown is a prayer that was both greatly esteemed and highly recommended by St. Louis de Montfort.  He made it a point to include it among his list of the external practices of the devotion of Holy Slavery, or Perfect Devotion, to Our Lady, saying, “If it is not too inconvenient, they should recite every day of their lives the Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin…” (TD #234)

The  new publication should be available by Easter and features the translation of the prayer that was prepared for and included in the new edition of Preparation for Total Consecration According to St. Louis de Montfort.

 

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Prayer to Jesus (For the grace of belonging completely to Mary)

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

This is the working draft of a new translation of Fr. de Montfort’s prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus that is found at the end of the text of the Secret of Mary.  It is the powerful and ardent prayer of a heart that is at one and the same time deeply grateful for having been given the gift of belonging to Our Lady, and yet also aware of being called to live with greater fidelity and perfection the life of total belonging to Christ through a total surrender of self to her.

PRAYER TO JESUS
For the grace of belonging completely to Mary

My kind Jesus,
permit me to address myself to you
in order to attest to the gratitude I have
for the goodness that you have done for me
in giving me your holy Mother by the devotion of slavery
to be my advocate before your Majesty,
and my abundant surplus in my great wretchedness.
Alas! Lord, I am so wretched that,
without this good Mother,
I would infallibly be lost.

Yes, Mary is necessary to me to be near you in any way:
necessary in order to soothe you in your righteous anger,
because I have so offended you every day;
necessary in order to halt the eternal punishments of your justice,
which I deserve.
necessary in order to gaze upon you, in order to speak to you,
to pray to you, to approach you and to please you;
necessary in order to save my soul and those of others;
necessary, in a word, in order always to do your holy will
and to obtain in all things your greater glory.

Ah! Would that I could announce throughout all the universe
this mercy that you have had toward me!
Would that all the world could know that, without Mary, I would already be damned!
Would that I could offer worthy acts of thanksgiving for so great a blessing!
Mary is in me, HAEC FACTA EST MIHI.
O! What treasure! O! What consolation!
And I would not, after all that, be entirely hers?
O! What ingratitude, my dear Savior!
Send me, rather, death should this great unhappiness come to me:
for I prefer to die than to live without being entirely Mary’s.

I have taken her thousands upon thousands of times for all my good
with Saint John the Evangelist at the foot of the Cross
and I have as many times given myself to her;
but if I still have not done so according to your desires, my dear Jesus,
I do so now as you desire that I do it;
and if you see in my soul and my body anything
that does not belong to this august Princess,
I beg you to tear it out of me and to throw it far away from me,
as not being Mary’s, it is unworthy of you.

O Holy Spirit!
Grant me all these graces and
plant, water and cultivate in my soul
the Tree of true life,
which is the kindly Mary,
so that it grows, it blossoms, and it provides
the fruit of life in abundance.

O Holy Spirit!
Give me a great devotion and
a great inclination toward your divine Spouse,
a great support upon her maternal bosom,
and a continual recourse to her mercy,
so that in her you may perfectly form in me
Jesus Christ, great and mighty,
even to the fullness of his perfect age.
Amen.

© 2013 Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM

Posted in Consecration, Devotional Prayers, Louis de Montfort, Translations | Leave a comment

New Translation: A Brief Invocation of the Holy Spirit

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

The prayer that St. Louis de Montfort addressed to the Lord Jesus which is found at the conclusion of the Secret of Mary includes a beautiful invocation of the Holy Spirit.  As part of a project to put together a new translation of the entire prayer, I have started with this invocation, the draft translation of which follows below:

O Holy Spirit!
Grant me all these graces and
plant, water and cultivate in my soul
the Tree of true life,
which is the kindly Mary,
so that it grows, it blossoms, and it provides
the fruit of life in abundance. 

O Holy Spirit!
Give me a great devotion and
a great inclination toward your divine* Spouse,
a great support upon her maternal bosom,
and a continual recourse to her mercy,
so that in her you may perfectly form in me
Jesus Christ, great and mighty,
even to the fullness of his perfect age.
Amen.

NOTE:  The word divine as used by St. Louis de Montfort in this case has the sense of “most holy” and “most perfect” and “godly” and “heavenly” and “angelic” and “exalted” and “sublime”.  To avoid potential misunderstanding it is likely preferable to use another term, however, for the time being I can find none that adequately captures the full meaning of this word when it is properly understood.

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Concerning the date of the Feast of the Annunciation this year

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Hugh Gillespie, SMM

In the present year (2013) the Annunciation of the Lord is not celebrated on March 25.  Rather, as this date is Monday of Holy Week, the celebration of the Annunciation of the Lord is deferred until the first day that it can possibly be celebrated which is Monday, April 8, the day immediately following Divine Mercy Sunday.  Those who seek to make their Act of Total Consecration, or to renew it, on the feast of the Annunciation this year should do so on the date that the Church actually celebrates the feast so as to me most fully in union with the prayer of the Church.

The question may then arise, “If I make my Act of Total Consecration on April 8 this year, will that date become my feast day?”  The answer to this is “No.”  When one makes his Act of Total Consecration on the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, his feast day is not the specific calendar date of his consecration bu the date, whenever it may fall in a given year, on which the Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Lord – usually March 25.

Due to the importance this feast day for those who follow the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort, it is necessary to be familiar with the occasional changes in the date of its celebration by the Church and to plan our calendars accordingly.

For those who have already planned to start a preparation process for total consecration today in order to make the Act of Total Consecration on March 25, it would be best, if one cannot defer the start date to better correspond  to the celebration of the feast of the Annunciation on April 8, to make one’s consecration or renewal without significant formality on March 25 in preparation to celebrate the Mysteries of Holy Week and Easter Week, and then to celebrate the consecration with much greater solemnity and formality in union with the Church’s celebration of the Annunciation of the Lord on April 8.

Posted in Announcements, Consecration | 5 Comments