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Rosaire
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:40 pm Posts: 86
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 A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by St. Louis-Marie Montfort(faithful translation of Fr. Faber, of which he says he says: "I have translated the whole treatise myself, and have taken great pains with it, and have been scrupulously faithful." The TAN books edition has the same words "scrupulously faithful", making the book look like the faithful translation of Fr. Faber, but in fact, is a different translation. They did more than just update the archaic words and expressions in the new translation. Some parts are more clearer in the original translation than in the new translation, and vice versa; one should read both translations, as well as another translation which is another variant of the newer translation, available here: http://www.montfort.org.uk/Writings/TrueDev.html) This is a very important book; Fr. Faber says in preface: "...GOD is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for any one than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion...Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men...." http://books.google.com/books?vid=03hNpWi9X7ZBRisb&id=OccCAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PR17&lpg=RA1-PR17&dq=montfort&as_brr=1
_________________ Let us have great devotion towards the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary
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Rosaire
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:40 pm Posts: 86
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 Re: A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Preface of Fr. Faber … All those who are likely to read this book love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory,—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry, which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappinesses, which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy. But what is the remedy that is wanted? what is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the Saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Here, in England, Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. ... Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls, which might be saints, wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelised.
Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the Saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for any one than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignon de Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ.
Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then ! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our faith, and how different would our Communions be! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Saviour, her dearest and most blessed Son!
I have translated the whole treatise myself, and have taken great pains with it, and have been scrupulously faithful. [note: the TAN books version uses this same preface of Fr. Faber but does not use his translation of the book and did more than just update the few archaic languages.] At the same time, I would venture to warn the reader that one perusal will be very far from making him master of it. If I may dare to say so, there is a growing feeling of something inspired and supernatural about it, as we go on studying it; and with that we cannot help experiencing, after repeated readings of it, that its novelty never seems to wear off, nor its fulness to be diminished, nor the fresh fragrance and sensible fire of its unction ever to abate.
F. W. FABER, ... 1862.
_________________ Let us have great devotion towards the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary
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