Today’s the memorial of St. Louis de Monfort, St. Gianna Molla, along with St. Peter Chanel, and of course many others, as per usual.
Monfort is in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints, included in the section, “Saints are People Who Teach Us New Ways to Pray”
(Along with St. Benedict, St. Dominic and St. Teresa of Avila)
Speaking of St. Louis de Montfort – here is a good article about his impact on John Paul II:
“Reading that book (True Devotion to Mary)”, he said, “has marked a decisive turning point in my life. I said ‘turning point’, although this is a long inner journey…. At that very moment this unique treatise came into my hands, one of those books which it is not enough ‘to have read’. I reread it constantly and certain passages in succession.
“I soon realized that the book contained something fundamental over and above its baroque style. The result was that the devotion to the Mother of Christ of my childhood and my adolescence gave way to a new attitude, a devotion that welled up from the depths of my faith, as at the very heart of the Trinitarian and Christological reality”.
In the book Crossing the Threshold of Hope by John Paul II (in which the Pope is interviewed by Vittorio Messori who wrote the introduction [English edition, Jonathan Cape, 1994]), the Holy Father responded to a precise question from the interviewer.
“Totus tuus. This phrase is not only an expression of piety, or simply an expression of devotion. It is more. During the Second World War, while I was employed as a factory worker, I came to be attracted to Marian devotion.
“At first, it had seemed to me that I should distance myself a bit from the Marian devotion of my childhood in order to focus more on Christ. Thanks to St Louis de Montfort, I came to understand that true devotion to the Mother of God is actually Christocentric, indeed, it is very profoundly rooted in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption” (pp. 212-213).
In the book Gift and Mystery. On the 50th anniversary of my priestly ordination (Vatican Publishing House, 1996) John Paul II made this confession: “At one point I began to question my devotion to Mary, believing that, if it became too great, it might end up compromising the supremacy of the worship owed to Christ….
“I was greatly helped by a book by St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort entitled Treatise of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. There I found the answers to my questions. Yes, Mary does bring us closer to Christ; she does lead us to him, provided that we live her mystery in Christ….
“This treatise by St Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort can be a bit disconcerting, given its rather florid and baroque style, but the essential theological truths which it contains are undeniable. The author was an outstanding theologian. His Mariological thought is rooted in the Mystery of the Trinity and in the truth of the Incarnation of the Word of God” (pp. 42-43).
Of course, it’s also the feastday of St Gianna Beretta Molla, who’s also in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints, under “Saints are people who love children,” along with Nicholas, John Bosco, and Elizabeth Ann Seton.