When I was a child, my parents would take us with them to their “consecration” meetings. It was a gathering of those who had made their consecration to Mary using St. Louis DeMontfort’s 33-day method. We would pray the rosary together, listen to a teaching on Mary and finish with a “light lunch”.
Month in and month out we went. We kids didn’t have a clue what we were doing, or the significance of Marian Devotion, but when I was in 8th grade, I formally made my consecration.
In order to do so, I had to read True Devotion to Mary, by St. Louis DeMontfort. That book still sits on my shelf today, and over the years I have combed through it many times. And, to this day, I understand a fraction of what I am reading! Although the few things I do glean from it are profound and worth studying!
But because of this experience, Mariology always seemed like something that only the elite Catholics could understand. The rest of us just copy-catted them and “faked it til we maked it”, ope- that doesn’t work in the past tense, does it?
Anyway, I continued on in my Marian pursuit because this devotion was important to my parents, so it insinuated to me that it was worth pursuing.
When my grandma died, I inherited a book called, The Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Liguori. I had never heard of this saint before. The book was pretty crusty looking, being a soft-covered book published in the 1930’s. There were ugly yellow flowers on the cover to match the yellowing pages.
Yet, as much as I had judged that sad-looking book by its cover, I still managed to open the crinkly, old pages. And thus, I was introduced to the great St. Alphonsus de Liguori.
I found his book to be brilliantly written in a way that explained things so that I could easily understand.
He was an intelligent man, well-educated, obtaining a doctorate in both canon and civil law by the age of 16.
He gave up his law practice to become a priest, and later a bishop. We know him as a prolific author and a doctor of the church, but writing was something he took up late in life. His life work was dedicated to the imitation of Christ and preaching to the peasants in rural areas.
He is the founder of the Redemptorist congregation.
Born in 1696 in Naples, his accessible style may be attributed to the time period that he was living in. Jansenism was at its height, which is a heresy that denies the role of free will in receiving and utilizing grace. St Alphonsus’ style of preaching was simple, compared to the pompous displays from the pulpit common during his time, and he met the rigorism of Jansenism with total kindness. He was a practical man who taught things that were concrete rather than dealing in the abstract.
If I’m being honest, I don’t know much about St. Alphonsus. I had to do a bit of research to even offer you this much information about him! But his works of writing are treasure troves of knowledge and vivid meditations.
Here is an excerpt from The Glories of Mary in part 3- The Dolors of Mary, the Flight into Egypt-
“O God, what a touching sight must I have been to have beheld that tender Virgin, with her newborn babe in her arms, wandering through the world! 'But how,' asks St. Bonaventure, 'did they obtain their food? Where did they repose at night? How were they lodged?' What can they have eaten but a piece of hard bread, either brought by St. Joseph or begged as an alms? Where can they have slept on such a road (especially on the two hundred miles of desert, where there were neither houses nor inns, as authors relate), unless on the sand or under a tree in a wood, exposed to the air and the dangers of robbers and wild beasts, with which Egypt abounded? Ah, had anyone met these three greatest personages in the world, for whom could he have taken them but for poor wandering beggars?”
Do you see how he captivates your mind with this powerful image of the Holy Family fleeing for their lives, almost begging you to understand the reality of what happened all those years ago? Reading his writings is a prayerful experience for me as my heart is moved to see these events in my mind's eye as a reality instead of a Catholic fact to be memorized.
St. Alphonsus has become a good friend of mine over the years. His words have convicted me of my smallness through his hard-hitting book, Maxims on Death and Dying which is an excellent way to humble yourself before closing your eyes each night.
His beautiful meditations in The Glories of Mary, as well as The Holy Eucharist, are incredible resources to be reintroduced to some of the timeless truths of our faith, in a way that is accessible and moving.
The beauty of the Communion of Saints is that there is someone out there for everyone! While St. Alphonsus may not be the first saint that comes to mind for most people, I encourage you to find one (if you haven’t already) that seems to speak to you and study them! Pursue this saint by reading their biography, but especially by reading things that they wrote with their own hand.
I encourage you this month to do a more in-depth study on this particular saint and see how this experience changes your life, as this holy man or woman teaches you how to fall deeper in love with Our Lord.
St. Alphonsus, pray for us!
Until next time, your sister in Christ,
Leah
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