B.

A Preparation over 4 weeks (Anonymous

Montfortian author)

This suggestion for a preparation is spread over a period of four weeks,

corresponding to the four objectives set forth by St. Louis Marie, but with a
development which is somewhat different.
Each week comprises six points for reflection and meditation, one point
for each day. The seventh day can be used for a revision of the whole.
a. The world in which we find ourselves

1. A fuller and better life… and without end!

• We did not ask to live. But we do live on this earth.
• So now it is only right to ask of life what it can offer us that is best.
• And our own aspirations lead us in the direction of what is more and
better.
• Is it possible to fulfil a dream that is beyond me? Who will help me in
this?

2. In a world of human beings

• Life has placed us in a world on which we depend.
• And in a history which carries us along in its flow.
• And in a human race which is incalculable in number and astonishing.
• But what can others do to bring about the full success of our life?

3. The world of human beings is also, and above all, the world of God.
• The world is first and foremost God’s world: the God of mankind.
• It is God who guides history from start to finish, with and for human
beings.
• His plan of love for them: to lead them to happiness, to fill them.
• To succeed in my life depends on my welcoming freely this plan (life
wisdom).

4. Life wisdom - according to God’s way

• All human creatures, being free and responsible for success in their
lives, owe it to themselves to reflect and to choose a life-wisdom.
 • Above and beyond all human forms of wisdom - sometimes very
beautiful in themselves - there is God’s wisdom revealed to us in the
Bible: the wisdom of salvation and fullness, manifested above all in
Jesus Christ, “Eternal Wisdom”.

5. The danger of false forms of wisdom evident in the world

• Apart from genuine forms of human wisdom and the wisdom of God,
there have appeared, since the very beginning, false forms of wisdom
which are deceptive regarding success in life, and are inspired by the
“Father of lies”, the enemy of God and human beings.
• Their aim is to turn humans away from God and to turn them in on
themselves (selfishness, vanity, pride) and towards earthly things
(money, material possessions…).
• These false forms of wisdom (“the spirit of the world”) affect us to a
greater or lesser extent.

6. We must free ourselves of false forms of wisdom, “empty ourselves of

the spirit of the world”
• Because they deceive and are false, leading us astray or holding up our
progress towards a fuller and better life with Jesus. Because we want to
undertake a way of greater fidelity, in truth…
• What are these false forms of wisdom (these forms of selfishness,
vanity, pride and excessive attachment to earthly goods)?
Recommended readings: Deut 30,15-20; Ps 1; 8; 32; 118; Is 40,9-30; Mt 6; 7;
1 Jn 2,15-22; 4,1-6; LEW chapter 7; TD 78-82.
Suggested prayers: to the Holy Spirit (Veni Sancte Spiritus); to Mary (Rosary).
b. At the heart of the world and of history: Jesus Christ

1. Jesus: the well-beloved Son, sent into the world of human beings
• He comes from very far away: from the depths of God’s heart.
• He is sent to bring to fulfilment the plan of God for human beings.
• Having become man in Mary, he conceives a passionate love for his
Father.
• He takes the stance towards him of a fully loving and obedient Son.

2. Jesus, the elder brother and Saviour of the human race

• The deepest desire of his heart: to reveal his father to men and women.
 • He consecrates himself, body and soul, to this mission, so as to save
them all.
• He bears witness by the whole of his life to the tenderness of God.
• On the Cross he gives the supreme witness to this. His life-wisdom? To
love!

3. Jesus: always at work in the world and in history

• Risen and living, Jesus continues to be present among human beings
and with them.
• The work that he carries out: the most marvellous undertaking ever
known…
• And the most important and most decisive for success in human
lives…
• The only one which will last into the new world: the old will disappear.

4. The work of Jesus in the world: to be realised through the Church

• Through his Spirit, Jesus is at work in all men and women of good
will.
• But he acts more specially in the visible sign which is the Church.
• The Church is first and foremost HIMSELF, and then all those who
welcome him into their lives.
• Everything else in the Church (ministries, sacraments, etc.) is a sign of
his presence and of his action.

5. The work of Jesus in us and through us

• Through his Church, Jesus enters into the depths of our hearts.
• By the means he has left us, he heals us and gives us his Life.
• By the gift of his Spirit, he draws us into his own love for the Father
and for all men and women.
• Jesus: our best Friend who is most brotherly, and most powerful.

6. Taking our stand beside Jesus in the world and in history

• The supreme wisdom for life: to be as close as possible to Jesus…
• And to take our stand beside him in the context of our lives, throughout
all our days.
• The most important thing for us to achieve each day: HIS WORK.
 • Everything in us should become a means of service to his work in us
and in our brothers and sisters.
Recommended readings: Lk 1,26-38; Jn 3,11-21; 10,22-39; 17; Mt 25,31-46;
Rom 8; Eph 1; 2; 4; Phil 2,5-11; LEW 42-47; 64-71; TD 61-73.
Suggested prayers: each day, the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and the
Ave Maris Stella.
c. “I” in the world and in history
To take my stand with Jesus in the world and in history, I have to know
myself well: what I am, what I am called to become, my potential, my leanings.

1. What I am as a human being, through my body and my soul

• By my whole being, I am a gift from God to myself, entrusted to me.
• My origins lie in eternity, in creation and in my conception.
• My life is lived out according to the rhythm of my years, and my
various activities.

2. Called to live… to the point of sharing in the divine Life of Jesus

• “I don’t want to die!”: the desire for a deeper and better life.
• Called to live at the level of my body, my mind, and my heart…
• Called to live with another life: the life of Jesus received in Baptism.

3. Called to an ever deeper and better love: with Jesus

• To live, at its best, is to love. This is the highest human achievement.
• We are worth what our heart is worth, depending on the quality of our
loving.
• Jesus, through his Spirit, enables us to love as he does: “You must
love…”

4. Called to fight against the tendencies in myself to “love badly”

• To love… and to love like Jesus is not always easy.
• There is a tendency in myself to love myself in a wrong sort of way, to
the detriment of God and of others (selfishness, pride, …)
• “The sinner, the one who loves evil” (Bernadette). Sin is first of all in
the heart. To love is to fight to open oneself up, to give oneself.
5. Called to love in freedom, as a responsible person
• Freedom: a marvellous prerogative of the human person, but one which
makes him or her responsible for his or her own behaviour and way of
loving.
• Freedom: the power to choose, with full consciousness, and with a
preferential love, whom I will love and how.
• Freedom, in the final analysis, is the power to take one’s stand in the
world and in history with Jesus, in relationship to God and to his
loving will.

6. For ME, the greatest love, the greatest freedom…

• Is to give myself completely to Jesus, to let myself be led in docility to
his Spirit to love ever more deeply the Father and my brothers and
sisters.
• My baptism has already set me on this road of love… on the way to
eternal life.
• I am called to ratify this starting point everyday, and carry it to its
conclusion.
• “It is in freedom that you learn how to become a slave”: through the
love of the Lord… like Mary of Nazareth.
Recommended readings: Mt 5; Mk 12,28-34; Jn 8,31-36; 1 Cor 13; TD 68-75;
126-130.
Suggested prayers: to the Holy Spirit (Litany); to Mary (Ave Maris Stella).
d. With Mary, towards the fullness of Jesus Christ
Who is Mary in the world and in history? Who is she for me? What place
ought I to give her in my life?

1. Within the development of mankind: at a particular moment a woman

blessed among all
• Mary lived two thousand years ago. All generations have venerated
her.
• The most human woman of all… and the one most filled with grace.
• She is only the “Servant of the Lord”, but she brings into being the
fullness of the messianic times.
2. A woman who became truly the Mother of Jesus, the only Son of God
• The service asked of her by God: to conceive and give birth to the
Saviour.
• In freedom she reflected, then said “yes” to God, so much did she
desire the salvation of men and women, indeed of all peoples.
• Henceforth, for her, to serve will mean to be the Mother of Jesus, fully!

3. A woman who became, at the same time, the true spiritual Mother of
the brothers and sisters, and disciples of Jesus
• All real motherhood is first and foremost of a spiritual nature, by its
origin and its end (to form a man or woman to fullness).
• The spiritual maternity of Mary is the highest. Announced on Calvary,
it was a reality from the moment of the Incarnation: the Mother of both
Head and members.
• Mary becomes effectively our spiritual Mother at our baptism.

4. A Mother to be found in our lives as brothers and sisters, disciples of

Jesus
• We do not need to look for Mary in our lives: she is present to us in a
maternal way, concerned with helping us to live through and for Jesus:
“Do whatever he tells you.”
• She educates us in the wisdom of love in Jesus’ way, and the wisdom
of all the virtues.
• She intercedes for us, as “the one who found grace” for us.

5. A Mother with whom we owe it to ourselves to live in a filial

relationship
• The most important thing in our lives is to allow Jesus to achieve his
work in us and through us, using the means he has given us in his
Church…
• And with the motherly help of Mary: we need to recognise her
maternal role and conform ourselves to it: “Behold your Mother!”
• Some “practices” for finding Mary in our lives and relying on her
example in the Gospel, and on her intercession…
6. A Mother whose task with regard to Jesus and ourselves we ought to
make as real as possible by consecrating ourselves totally to her for him
• This is a practice based on the example of Jesus, and then on that of the
disciple John.
• According to Montfort, it consists in a full gift of ourselves and all our
goods.
• It commits us to nothing else than to live out our baptism, but more
faithfully and more easily: with the help of Mary.
• Only one thing is demanded: the will to be converted to a full Christian
life, and to advance along the path of Jesus.
Recommended readings: Lk 1,26-30; 2,39-52; Jn 19,25-27; TD 22-55; 116-
121.
Suggested prayers: to the Holy Spirit (Veni Sancte Spiritus); to Mary (Litany,
Rosary).