A new and definitive edition of Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort’s famous True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin makes a number of fascinating points in commentaries inserted throughout the text.

Among these is the seemingly irreconcilable differences Catholics and Protestants have over supernatural interventions, especially to do with angels and saints (and especially the Blessed Mother).

While these differences have softened a bit (in one of his last talks, Evangelical missionary Charlie Kirk defended veneration of Mary and said Protestants were undervaluing her), our Evangelical brothers and sisters often claim, points out the new book (in the way of commentator Robert Stackpole), that there is no evidence from the Bible that permits invocation of such heavenly helpers.

“But Catholics see several indications right in the New Testament itself that the saints in Heaven know of our struggles and prayers on earth and join their powerful intercessory prayers to our own.

“We are ‘surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses’ in Heaven, the martyrs and holy souls of the past (Hebrews 12:1), whose prayers must have powerful effect (see James 5:16), and who, along with the angels, offer up the prayers of the ‘saints’ on earth (that is, the prayers of all baptized Christians) as incense before the Throne of God (see Revelation 5:8, 8:3-4).”

Yes, the deceased in Heaven can and do intervene. Sometimes, they show themselves.

But we must be cautious.

For the devil can come as an angel of light.

Did Our Savior not entrust all of His faithful disciples to the maternal care of His mother when she stood at the foot of the Cross (see John 19:26-27), which surely indicates her role as intercessor for all the children of her extended family?”

It all shows the role of Mary as the maternal intercessor for the People of God—including, naturally, our Protestant brethren, and everyone, for that matter.

This is in harmony with Holy Scripture, though, as the book points out, “Catholics do not believe that everything God has revealed to us can be proven from Scripture alone, agreeing with the Bible itself (2 Thessalonians 2:15 and 1 Timothy 3:15).”

[resources: True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin]

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