St. Louis – Future Renewal of the Church

St. Louis Grignion de Montfort (1673 – 1716) was known for his powerful preaching and moving devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “To Jesus through Mary”, he would say. ‘From very early on his priestly life, St Louis Marie de Montfort dreamt of “a small company of priests” who would be dedicated to the preaching of missions to the poor, under the banner of the Blessed Virgin. As the years went by, his efforts to secure some recruits who would work with him in this way were redoubled. This excerpt from his Prayer for Missionaries, known in French as the “Prière Embrasée” (burning prayer), composed by him probably towards the end of his life, is a heart-felt cry to God to fulfill his dreams. It describes the sort of “apostles” he is seeking, who he foresees will be particularly necessary in what he calls in [his writing] the True Devotion,(1) the “latter times”.'(2)

…it is time to act, O Lord, they have rejected your law. It is indeed time to fulfil your promise. Your divine commandments are broken, your Gospel is thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even your servants. The whole land is desolate, ungodliness reigns supreme, your sanctuary is desecrated and the abomination of desolation has even contaminated the holy place. God of Justice, God of Vengeance, will you let everything, then, go the same way? Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah? Will you never break your silence? Will you tolerate all this forever? Is it not true that your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? Is it not true that your kingdom must come? Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church? Are not the Jews to be converted to the truth and is this not what the Church is waiting for? (3) All the blessed in heaven cry out for justice to be done: vindica, and the faithful on earth join in with them and cry out: amen, veni, Domine, amen, come, Lord. All creatures, even the most insensitive, lie groaning under the burden of Babylon’s countless sins and plead with you to come and renew all things: omnis creatura ingemiscit, etc., the whole creation is groaning…. —St. Louis de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries, n. 5

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Footnotes

  1. nos. 35, 45-58[]
  2. Source: montfortian.info[]
  3. “I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise [in] your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob; and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Rom 11:25-27). See also The Return of the Jews.[]
Posted in Messages, Other Souls, The Era of Peace.