Initiatives for Tercentenary of Death of St. Louis Marie

Great Britain & Ireland - Apart from local initiatives which are likely to be set in motion in the various residences of the GB/I entity in the coming year, we would like to draw the attention of the Congregation as a whole to a number of recent (and not-so-recent) additions to the website of the entity, which is to be found at http://www.montfort.org.uk. Regarding the Tercentenary Year celebrations themselves, we have provided access for downloading the series of Prayer and Reflection leaflets devised by Fr Georges Madore and others, under the title of ‘Animation Tool 2015-1016: In the Footsteps of Montfort’. While these are available on the Tercentenary website (http://www.montfort-tercentenary.org/) as a single booklet, we have made the individual leaflets available separately at http://www.montfort.org.uk/tercentenary.php. We have also made available a Course in Montfortian Spirituality, for following online (with the opportunity to have one’s progress assessed) or as a download from our website. This course was originally proposed as a correspondence course by the General Chapter of the Company of Mary held at Nemi in 1993, but for various reasons was never completed - until now. Before being shelved indefinitely, 10 of the planned 15 lessons had been written by various members of the Congregation, including Father Henri Derrien of the French Province (Biographical Notes on St Louis Marie), the late Father Bernard Guitteny of the French Province (St Louis Marie in the Social and Religious Context of his Day), the late Father Marcel Gendrot of the French Province and former Superior General (The Early Biographies; The Montfortian Family), the late Father Emmanuel Guil of the French Province (Montfortian Prayer - in collaboration with Father Herman-Josef Jünemann), Father Claude Sigouin of th e Canadian Province (Obedience and Liberty; Montfortian Poverty), Father Paul Allerton of the GB/I Province (A Spirituality for the Apostolate), Father Battista Cortinovis of the Italian Province (Church - Community), and Father Herman-Josef Jünemann of the German Province (To Jesus through Mary) - who was also the coordinator of the original plan. All of these lessons, except for Montfortian Prayer, are available in French from Father Paul Allerton or Father Jünemann. Montfortian Prayer is available from Father Jünemann in German. In 2014, the GB/I Vice-Province took on the task of completing the course and publishing it on the Internet - specifically on the GB/I website. The remaining five lessons were written by members of the entity: The Writings of St. Louis Marie, The Lived Gospel, The Experience of God the Father, and The Experience of the Holy Spirit by Father Paul Allerton; and The Experience of Jesus Christ by the late Father James Murray. The whole course was then made available on the GB/I website at http://www.montfort.org.uk/Course/index.php, where it can be followed either in the pre-determined lesson order or by choosing lessons from a table. It is also available for download as a PDF file or as an e-book in either .epub or .mobi formats: these are available at http://www.montfort.org.uk/Course/cont.php, and are suitable for use on most e-readers, including the Kindle. A Montfortian Podcast, entitled “St Louis Marie de Montfort and ‘True Devotion’” has been made available through the GB/I website. This is intended as an introduction, as its name implies, to St Louis Marie’s teaching on “Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary” in the form of audio files of between 7 and 13 minutes. So far, 14 episodes of the podcast have been made available, with more to follow. People can either download the various episodes directly from the page http://www.montfort.org.uk/Podcasts/index-smm.php, or can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or other podcast subscription services. Other relatively recent additions to the GB/I website are a Preparation for Total Consecration, based on the book Alive to God, by the late Father Donald Macdonald, and, more recently the possibility of downloading the first volume of an English translation (by Father Paul Allerton) of the Biography of St Louis Marie de Montfort, written around 1770 by Father Charles Besnard, Superior General, but not published even in French until 1981. It is hoped that the translation into English of the second volume of this work will be completed before January 2016, when it will hopefully be made available in a printed version. For the download of the first volume, see http://www.montfort.org.uk/downloads.php#Besnard. The GB/I entity is happy for any other entities of the Congregation to take any of these pages/documents/texts to be translated and made available on their own or other websites. A new short biography of St Louis Marie (approximately 45 pages), written by Father Paul Allerton, is to be published in England in January 2016 by the Incorporated Catholic Truth Society of London, in connection with the Tercentenary of the saint’s death. This will typically be sold on parish book-stalls throughout the country.