Advent reminds us not only of the first coming of Our Lord, but also of the second, final one, the Eschaton. The end of the world might still be far away—it is impossible to know when it will happen: we don’t know the day or the hour. But we know for sure that with every moment that passes, the end is getting nearer and nearer. And as the end gets closer and closer, God wants His Church to become more and more Marian. Start preparing!
In his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Louis de Montfort writes: “The salvation of the world began through Mary and through Her it must be accomplished … As She was the way by which Jesus first came to us, She will again be the way by which He will come to us the second time, but in a different manner … ” (49).
As the end times approach, the enmity foretold by God in Genesis 3:15 will become more and more manifest: “I will put enmities between you and the Woman, and your seed and Her seed: She shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for Her heel” (Gen. 3:15). We can expect that the devil will attack Our Lady more and more fiercely as his time runs out. Our Lord has told us clearly that in the end times, there will be a tribulation such as there has never been seen since the beginning of the world (cf. Mt 24:21). We should not fear, however, because the father of lies will not be able to overcome those who are the possession and property of Our Lady. The more he will attack, the more astounding will Our Lady’s victories be, as St. Maximilian confidently teaches, and the outcome will always be the same: he will be defeated (KW 664). God has given victory to the Immaculate, and She will always be victorious, and all those who fight on the side of Our Lady will share in the triumph.
The victory will not come without a fight, and the fight will not be without pain. The offspring of the Woman will not be spared the tribulation, but they will be given the grace to persevere through it all and the devil will be powerless to separate them from God. And their holy perseverance will be a blessing for the whole Church: “And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (Mt 24:22). God who foresees and foretells the trial also prepares us for it. St. Peter tells us that “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial” (2Pt 2:9). He has given us a refuge. “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart,” Our Lady has told the whole world in Fatima. The refuge is Her Heart, a Heart without sin, a Heart that hates sin and will be our shelter from sin and all that leads to sin. Since the devil will inflict tribulation to desperately try to make us sin, so as to separate us from God, that is why true devotion to Our Blessed Lady is that much more important as we near the end times.
Since the devil knows very well he is doomed to fail against Her and Her “offspring,” that is against those who are consecrated to Her, his constant effort is to try to draw souls away from the Woman, to make the faithful give up their devotion to Our Lady. We must therefore never give up our devotion to the Immaculate, but only increase it. The more we are tempted to give it up or to diminish it, the more we must do the opposite of what the devil wants us to do, and surrender ourselves more fully to Her to whom victory has been assured.
In a particularly powerful conference of his, St. Maximilian sums up all that we have been saying:
“Our Lord as man is our Mediator in heaven with the Heavenly Father. The Blessed Mother is the Mediatrix between us and Our Lord and all graces flow to us through Her. She was made Mediatrix by Our Lord and we believe in this. Through Her we draw graces and She leads us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
[…] Certain authors have such hesitations regarding veneration of the Blessed Mother, because they are afraid lest they take away veneration from God by it, and they [end up] disparaging Mary. They are of the opinion that veneration is due to Mary, but, like the devil, they do not want to bend their necks before Her, and when some temptation comes, they become confused and they start to have doubts, whether to pray to Our Lord or to Our Lady. Whereas the more someone has consecrated himself to the Immaculate, the more confidently he can go to Our Lord, to His Sacred Heart, especially during times of temptation, but only through Mary, and only through Her because She is the safe ladder by which we climb to the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord.
Dear Brothers, let us not allow the devil to lead us astray […] Why am I telling you this? If the devil were to try to attack you, do not believe him. Even if clever theologians and learned men were to come along and announce to you wise and lofty things, but they taught you something different than what I am teaching you, do not believe them. Even if the most holy persons were to come, but they taught you something different, do not believe them…
St. Paul says in his letter to the faithful: “Even if an angel from heaven came and taught you something other than what I am teaching you, let him be anathema” [cf. Gal 1:8]. And I repeat the same thing to you: if someone were to arise in your midst who did not want to venerate the Blessed Mother in a special way, and were to relax our strict union with the Immaculate, and teach you something different than what I teach you, let him be anathema.
We do not have to always be praying only to the Blessed Mother. We can also pray directly to Our Lord, and with all the more confidence the more we belong to the Immaculate. But on the condition that we do not exclude the Blessed Mother, as long as we do not say: “To be saved or to become a Saint I do not need Our Lady,” because this would be diabolical.
The Immaculate is that ladder by which we climb up to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and whoever removes the ladder will not climb up, but will come crashing to the ground.
We believe that the Immaculate exists and that She leads us to Our Lord, and if anyone were to teach you differently, let him be anathema.” (Conference to the solemnly professed friars—31 December, 1938).
Let us never abandon, neglect or diminish our devotion to Our Lady under whatever pretext that the evil one might devise. Instead, with each day that passes, let us become more and more Her possession and property, because this is an assurance over our final victory. The closer we come to the end, the more we need to be completely Hers.
NOTE: St. Maximilian is referring to Br. Leo’s vision in the Little Flowers of St. Francis. In this vision, Br. Leo saw two ladders, one red, the other white. The friars who tried to climb the red ladder atop of which stood Our Lord all fell back to the ground. St. Francis encouraged them to not despair, and to run instead to the white ladder, atop of which stood Our Lady, and all the friars easily climbed the white ladder and were received into heaven.
