Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary
Christians
have always seen Mary as a shortcut, a path which shortens the spiritual
journey to reach God. In Couples for
Christ, we recognize our continuing need for personal spiritual growth in that
journey and we strive to help fill that need, as our primary goal. As part of our PFO strategy of promoting
personal spiritual growth of members, we encourage active participation in the
sacramental and devotional life of the Church.
Thus, along with devotion to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, a true
devotion to Mary our Blessed Mother is essential. It is very timely that our CFC theme
for 2012 is taken from “The Magnificat.”
What better way to receive the blessings from that theme than for each
individual member to consecrate himself / herself to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
We honor Mary our Blessed Mother throughout the year
especially in certain months. For example, May and October are
traditionally special months to honor Mary.
The
Church honors Mary with a special veneration.
From the earliest days of Christianity, the faithful have honored Mary
as Mother of God and prayed for her protection from dangers and her help for
their needs. This veneration of Mary is
essentially different from the adoration given to Father, Son and Spirit. It finds its expression in the liturgical
feasts dedicated to the Mother of God.
We honor Mary
with several of her feast days throughout the year and just to name a few of
them:
1. Immaculate
Conception on Dec. 8th - We celebrate Mary’s blessedness, a woman full of grace, having been
conceived without original sin as part of God’s plan to prepare her for the
very important role to be the Mother of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, an
integral part of our faith in the mystery of our salvation.
2. Mary, the Mother of God on Jan. 1st. Mary is no ordinary
woman. She was specially chosen by God
to become His mother so that He can become flesh, take on a human nature without
diminishing in any way His divine nature and thus fulfill God’s eternal plan
for our salvation. Jesus in turn gave us
Mary as our Mother when, after he had been nailed to the Cross, he addressed
her in these words: “Woman, behold your
son” Then he said to the disciple John, “Behold
your mother” (Jn 19:26-27). As a dutiful son, Jesus made sure someone
would take care of his mother after he was gone. From
that day onwards the whole Church has her as Mother. And all men have her as Mother. The words pronounced upon the Cross are
understood as being addressed to each one of us.” Indeed, Mary is a very special woman. “Our Blessed
Mother” is the loving consoling title that we often give to Mary. Why is that?
What does a mother do for us? Mothers
give birth to us in the natural physical sense.
Mary is truly our Mother in that she continually gives birth to the
supernatural life within us. She gives
birth and nourishment to us, the Body of Christ, in a supernatural way. She presents us to Jesus and the Father and
she shares in our sufferings.
3. Mary’s
Assumption on August 15th - By her Assumption is meant that not only her soul, but her body also
was taken up to heaven after her death, so that there was no long period of
sleeping in the grave, as in the case with others, even great Saints, who wait
for the last day for the resurrection of their bodies. We too must wait for that last day, when all
the dead, both the just and the unjust will rise at the final judgment.
4. Our
Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7th - This feast commemorates the great naval victory at the battle of
Lepanto by the Christian fleet that were vastly outnumbered, facing certain
defeat against a very powerful Muslim fleet. The victory was attributed to the help of the
holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through praying of the rosary.
5. Oct.
13th – The last of the six Fatima apparitions monthly that begun on May 13, 1917. The miracle of the sun at Fatima, Portugal
occurred on that day, an event promised by Mary to the young seers as a sign
and an affirmation of God’s call to repentance and conversion. Many skeptics and atheists, who had previously
doubted the apparitions and our Lady’s message, were subsequently converted
following that event.
Mary, the Star of Evangelization
and Mother of the Church
As the founder of the Church,
Jesus commissioned Mary to share in the Church’s birth by serving as the chief
model of faith, virtues and discipleship.
Mary also is the woman whose powerful contemplation would affect the
growth of the Church because of her perfect union with Christ. Thus she is referred to as the Star of
Evangelization. After the Ascension of
Jesus, Mary joined the community of believers in the Upper Room and prayed for
the gift of the Spirit. Just as she was
maternally present at the Incarnation of Jesus at Bethlehem, so she is maternally
present at the birth of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ at
Pentecost. “…and so it is that we proclaim the most holy Mary to be the Mother of
the Church, that is to say of all the people of God, of the faithful and their
pastors.” (Pope Paul VI). The main source of the Church’s
sanctifying power is mystical union with Christ. We cannot separate from that mystical union,
Mary the Mother of God, since Mary is perfectly united with Christ. To know Mary is to know Jesus; devotion to
Mary leads us to Jesus. (Remember the
old bumper sticker: “If you can’t find
Jesus, look for his mother.”)
Mary is a sign of hope about
our eternal future. “She is the image of the Church’s attainment of glory in the age that
is to come. Here on earth, until the day
of the Lord comes, she is the resplendent sign of sure hope and a comfort to
the People of God on their pilgrimage” (Lumen Gentium, 68; Vatican Council II).
Devotion to Mary is the way to
Christ.
Our Lady, close to her Son
fulfills her mission as Mother of all men by interceding continually for
them. The Church gives Mary the titles
of Advocate, Help, Perpetual Succor, and
Mediatrix and with motherly love she takes upon herself the task of
obtaining both ordinary and extraordinary graces for us and increasing our
union with Christ. What is more, “given that Mary, must in all justice, be
considered as the way by which we are led to Christ, the person who encounters
Mary cannot but equally encounter Christ” (Pope Paul Vl, Encyclical, Mense
maio, 29 April 1965).
Just us the disciple John took
Mary into his home, we as Christians are invited to bring her into our lives. Filial devotion to Mary is thus an integral
part of the Christian vocation. We are
always ready to run instinctively to her who “consoles us in our distress enlivens our faith, strengthens our hope,
gets rid of our fears and invigorates our timidity” (St. Bernard, Homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary). It is easy to approach God through
Mary. The whole people of God, doubtless
inspired by the Holy Spirit, have always had this divine certainty.
Total Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary
We highly recommend therefore,
if you have not done so yet, to do a personal consecration to our Blessed
Mother according to the formula or the way described by St. Louis De Montfort
in his classic book “True Devotion to Mary.”
This personal devotion is a 33-day process of consecration
consisting of 12 preliminary days of preparation followed by 3 weeks of prayer
and meditation during which the soul strives to acquire a better knowledge of
self, of Mary and of Jesus Christ.
How To Do The Consecration
Basically it's a 33-day of prayerful preparation prior to
consecration itself which is on the 34th day, usually falling on a feast day of
Mary. The 1st step is to get the book "True
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin" and read it between now and the start of
the preparatory prayers. It must be read
carefully, and not taken lightly. Consecrating
oneself has the character of a vow. The
book is available at any Catholic bookstore. There is also a thinner booklet entitled
"Preparation for Total Consecration, according to St. Louis Marie De
Montfort," which has only the prayers in preparation for the consecration. This accompanying booklet contains all the
readings and prayers for each of the 33 days leading to the 34th day
of actual consecration. On the web, the
following is a link that has the book itself and outlines the preparation
needed for this devotion: http://www.fisheaters.com/totalconsecrationmontfort.html.
The 2nd step is to choose the date of a Marian Feast on which to make the
consecration. Whichever feast you choose
will determine the date to begin a 33-day period of spiritual preparation,
i.e., you follow spiritual exercises for 33 days, and the next day will be the
Marian Feast on which you consecrate yourself. For example, the next major feast day of Mary
is August 15th, the Assumption.
So, you would begin the 33-day devotion with the preliminary days of
preparatory prayers on July 13th.
If you miss the July
13th start, the next major Marian feast day is December 8th,
Immaculate Conception in which case the start of the 33-day period of prayers
would be Nov. 29th.
The 3rd step is to begin the 33-day period of exercises. St. Louis de Montfort breaks these days into sections
of days, each section having its own prayers, and each particular day having
its own brief readings with which to fill the mind for that day (the readings
come from Sacred Scripture, "The Imitation of Christ," and "True
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary”). Don't
just read the readings, internalize them; don't let your lips just mouth the
prayers, truly pray them. First comes a
12-day preparation period that consists of emptying oneself of the spirit of
the world in penance and mortification. For
those 12 days, we pray the Veni Creator, the Ave Maris Stella, the Magnificat, and
the Glory Be. Then comes the 3 weeks,
each week having a specific focus. The
first week following the 12 preliminary days, focuses on offering up our
prayers and devotions for the purpose of coming to understand ourselves and our
sins; humility is the key, and the prayers the Litany of the Holy Spirit, the Litany of Loreto, and the Ave Maris
Stella help us. During the second week,
we ask the Holy Spirit to help us better understand the Blessed Virgin; we pray
the Litany of the Holy Spirit, the Litany of Loreto, the Ave Maris Stella, the
prayer to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort, and 5 decades of the Holy
Rosary each day for
assistance. During the third week, we
seek to better understand Christ through meditation and the Litany of the Holy Ghost,
the Ave Maris Stella, and the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Montfort's
prayer to Jesus, and the prayer “O Jesus Living in Mary.”
On the day of consecration, the 34th day, either fast or
give alms, or offer a votive
candle for the good
of another (or all of the above); do some spiritual penance and approach
consecration in the spirit of mortification. Now go to Confession
(or, if that is not possible, go during the 8 days
prior) and then receive Communion (if able to and properly disposed) with the intention of giving yourself to Jesus, as a slave
of love, by the hands of Mary. Now pray
the words of the consecration. Copy them
and have them with you at church, read them after the Mass (in front of the
tabernacle would be nice), and sign your copy of the Act of Consecration.
Many saints and popes throughout
the last two centuries bear witness to the efficacy of this devotion to our
Lady. Blessed Pope John Paul II had this to say: “The
reading of this book was a decisive turning point in my life. I say ‘turning point,’ but in fact it was a
long inner journey…. This ‘perfect devotion’ is indispensable to anyone who
means to give himself without reserve to Christ and to the work of
redemption… It is from Montfort that I
have taken my motto “Totus tuus” (“I am all thine”). Someday I’ll have to tell you Montfortians
how I discovered De Montfort’s ‘Treatise on True Devotion to Mary,’ and how
often I had to reread and understand it.”
More about the Book “True
Devotion to Mary”:
“This book by St. Louis De Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, is
considered to be the greatest single book on the Blessed Virgin Mary ever
written. Seemingly divinely inspired, it
is the classic statement on the spiritual way to Christ through the Blessed
Virgin Mary. Beloved by countless souls,
this book sums up the entire Christian life, showing a way of holiness that is
short, easy, secure and perfect – a way of life chosen by Our Lord Himself, as
explained here by the ‘Apostle of Mary.’
Yet this holy way to Jesus through Mary remains unknown to most
Catholics – even to many of the wisest and most spiritual among them. This is undoubtedly due in large part to the
work of Satan, who cannot endure that Mary should be so successful in bringing
souls to her Divine Son. In fact, St.
Louis de Montfort predicted that the devil would try to bury ‘True Devotion to
Mary’; and indeed, his precious manuscript lay hidden all during the 1700’s,
and was finally brought to light only in the year 1842, when it was found in a
chest of old books. But even today, most
Catholics still do not realize that God Himself has chosen Mary as the perfect
means for Christians to become entirely devoted to His service….. St. Louis de Montfort prophesied in this book
that ‘True Devotion to Mary’ would be the way of life adopted by the great saints
of the latter times… May it please God to raise up a great multitude of such
saints – and that the reader of this book may be included in that holy
company.” (‘True Devotion to Mary’, cover page).
Let’s consecrate ourselves to
our Blessed Mother and through this devotion bring us closer to Jesus in a most
certain, surest, shortest and easiest way possible. May we give praise, honor and glory to God
through this devotion.
Questions
for Discussion / Personal Reflection / Sharing:
1. Mary is also my spiritual mother as well as Mother of the
Church. In what ways do I currently show
devotion to Mary? What practices would
enrich my Marian devotion?
2. How has devotion to our Blessed Mother help me grow in my
faith, strengthen my hope and deepen my love for God? If you have already done the consecration to
Jesus though Mary, reflect or share how that consecration changed you
personally, your marriage and family life.
May our Lord
continue to bless Couples for Christ and its Family Ministries and may we
always “proclaim the greatness of the Lord” in 2012 and beyond as we build the
Church of the Home and the Church of the Poor!
Jack Macalalad
CFC USA Pastoral Formation National
Coordinator
No comments:
Post a Comment