Friday, May 25, 2007

Total Consecration to Mary

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, tonight, 7-8 pm, SAA Church. All are welcome!
----------------------------------------
May is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a time for all of us to step up our devotion to the Blessed Mother in some way. One of the best Marian devotions that I have found comes from St. Louis Marie de Montfort. It is a 33 day consecration that is based on his book, “True Devotion to Mary”. Pope John Paul II once called this book “a turning point in my life”.

I highly recommend this consecration to anyone who wishes to grow closer to Jesus through Mary. It can be done at different times during the year, and ends on a Marian feast. The consecration book is called “Total Consecration according to St. Louis Marie de Montfort” (Montfort Publications). If anyone has questions about or needs help in doing the consecration, please email me. The following is an excerpt from the consecration book:


“If we would go up to God, and be united with Him, we must use the same means He used to come down to us to be made Man and to impart His graces to us. This means is a true devotion to our Blessed Lady. There are several true devotions to our Lady: here I do not speak of those which are false.

The first consists in fulfilling our Christian duties, avoiding mortal sin, acting more out of love than with fear, praying to our Lady now and then, honoring her as the Mother of God, yet without having any special devotion to her.

The second consists in entertaining for our Lady more perfect feelings of esteem and love, of confidence and veneration. It leads us to join the Confraternities of the Holy Rosary and of the Scapular, to recite the five or the (twenty) decades of the Holy Rosary, to honor Mary’s image and altars, to publish her praises and to enroll ourselves in her sodalities. This devotion is good, holy, and praise-worthy if we keep ourselves free from sin. But it is not so perfect as the next, nor so efficient in severing our soul from creatures, in detaching ourselves in order to be united with Jesus Christ.

The third devotion to our Lady, known and practiced by very few persons, is this I am about to disclose to you, predestinate soul. It consists in giving one’s self entirely and as a slave to Mary, and to Jesus through Mary, and after that, to do all that we do, through Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary. We should choose a special feast day on which we give, consecrate and sacrifice to Mary, voluntarily, lovingly and without constraint, entirely and without reserve: our body and soul, our exterior property, such as our house, family and income, and also our interior and spiritual possessions: namely, our merits, graces, virtues, and satisfactions.”

No comments: