“I feel a tremendous urge to make our Lord and his holy Mother loved, to go in a humble and simple way to teach catechism to the poor in country places and to arouse in sinners a devotion to our Blessed Lady …… I know very well, my dear Father, that I am not worthy to do such honorable work, but when I see the needs of the Church I cannot help pleading continually for a small and poor band of good priests to do this work under the banner and protection of the Blessed Virgin.” – St. Louis de Montfort
St. Louis de Montfort burned with a deep and genuine vocational zeal for the renewal of the Church through the vigorous proclamation of the Gospel. For Montfort the secret of effective proclamation of the Gospel and the secret of authentic living of the Gospel are one and the same, and the name of this secret is Mary. He was so convinced of this that he devoted all of the energy of his vocational life to living and proclaiming a true devotion to Our Lady as the most powerful and direct means of becoming fully mature in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. To share this mission, to live this spirituality and to continue this work he founded the Company of Mary. As members of this Company, ours is a missionary vocation lived in the spirit of this great missionary and apostle of Our Lady.
The Montfort Preaching Team is a ministry of the United States Province of the Company of Mary that operates in full accordance with Catholic teaching and tradition and places itself at the service of the renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States. Presently our team consists of two members: Fr. Gerald Fitzsimmons, SMM and Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM. We are active in both English and Spanish and our ministry includes parish missions as well as days of recollection, retreat preaching and programs of formation in the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort – most especially involving the preparation for and living of the Total Consecration of oneself to Jesus through Mary.
