In The Total Consecration To Jesus Through Mary
Ad Iesum Per Mariam!
By St. Louis Marie DeMontfort
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Part 3: From the 20th day to the 26th day
Theme: KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LADY
Acts of love, pious affections for the Blessed Virgin, imitation of her virtues, especially her surpassing purity, her divine wisdom, her profound humility, her lively faith, her continual mental prayer, her blind obedience, her mortification in all things, her heroic patience, her ardent charity, and her angelic sweetness: “these being,” as Saint Louis De Montfort says, “the ten principal virtues of the Blessed Virgin.”
We must unite ourselves to Jesus through Mary — this is the characteristic of our devotion; therefore Saint Louis De Montfort asks that we employ ourselves in acquiring a knowledge of the Blessed Virgin. Mary is our sovereign and our mediatrix, our Mother and our Mistress. Let us then endeavor to know the effects of this royalty, of this mediation, of this maternity, as well as the grandeurs and prerogatives which are the foundation or consequences thereof. Our blessed Mother is also perfect — a mold wherein we are able to be molded in order to make her intentions and dispositions ours. This we cannot achieve without studying the interior life of Mary, namely her virtues, her sentiments, her actions, her participation in the mysteries of Christ and her union with Him.
DAY 20
St. Luke: Chapter 2: 16-21, 42-52
So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about Him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.
The circumcision of Jesus
When the eighth day came and child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before His conception.
When He was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When they were on their way home after the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without His parents knowing it. They assumed He was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for Him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find Him they went back to Jerusalem looking for Him everywhere.
When He was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When they were on their way home after the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without His parents knowing it. They assumed He was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for Him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find Him they went back to Jerusalem looking for Him everywhere.
The hidden life at Nazareth resumed
He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and men.
Now Pray: Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
Day 21
Secret of Mary: Nos. 23-24
True Devotion to Our Blessed Lady
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 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 Holy Rosary, to honor Mary’s images and altars, to publish her praises and to enroll ourselves in her sodalities. This devotion is good, holy and praiseworthy 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, know 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 house, family and income, and also our interior and spiritual possessions: namely, our merits, graces, virtues, and satisfactions.
Now Pray: Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
Day 22
True Devotion: Nos. 105-110
The characteristics of true devotion
Interior: True devotion to our Lady is interior, that is, it comes from the mind and the heart, it flows from the esteem we have for her, the high idea we have formed of her greatness and the love which we have for her.
Tender: It is tender, that is, full of confidence in her like a child’s confidence in his loving mother. The confidence makes the soul have recourse to her in all its bodily and mental necessities, with much simplicity, trust and tenderness.
Holy: This devotion to our Lady is holy, that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin and imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, particularly her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness and her divine wisdom. These are the ten principal virtues of the most holy Virgin.
Constant: It is constant, that is to say, it confirms the soul in good, and does not let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises. It makes it courageous in opposing the world and its fashions and maxims; the flesh in its weariness and passions; and the devil in his temptations, so that a person truly devoted to our Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable, scrupulous or timid.
Disinterested: True devotion to our Lady is disinterested; that is to say, it inspires the soul not to seek itself but God only, and God in His holy Mother. A true client of Mary does not serve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre and interests, nor for his own good, whether temporal or eternal, corporal or spiritual, but exclusively because she deserves to be served and God alone in her.
Now Pray: Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
Day 23
True Devotion: Nos. 120-121
Nature of perfect devotion to the Blessed Virgin or perfect consecration to Jesus Christ
All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which the most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now Mary, being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His holy Mother; that the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus Christ (Sec. 120). Hence it comes to pass that the most perfect consecration to Jesus Christ is nothing else but a perfect consecration, of ourselves, to the Blessed Virgin, and this is the devotion which I teach; or, in other words, a perfect renewal of the vows and promises of Holy Baptism. This devotion consists then, in giving ourselves entirely to our Lady, in order to belong entirely to Jesus Christ, through her.
We must give her: our body, with all its senses and members; our soul with all its powers; our exterior goods of fortune, whether present or to come; our interior and spiritual goods, which are our merits, our virtues and our good works, past, present and future. In a word, we must give her all we have in order of nature and in the order of grace and all that may become ours in the future in the orders of nature, grace and glory; and this we must do without reserve of so much as one farthing, one hair, or one least good intention. We must do it also for eternity, and we must do it without pretending to, or hoping for any other recompense for our offering and service, except the honor of belonging to Jesus Christ, through Mary and in Mary even though that sweet Mistress were not, as she always is, the most generous and the most grateful of creatures.
Now Pray: Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
Day 24
True Devotion: Nos. 152-164
This devotion is an easy, short, perfect and secure way of attaining union with our Lord, in which union the perfection of a Christian consists. It is an easy way: It is the way which Jesus Christ Himself trod in coming to us in which there is no obstacle in reaching Him. It is true that we can attain divine union by other roads, but it is by many crosses and strange deaths, and with many more difficulties which we shall find it hard to overcome. It is a short way: This devotion to our Blessed Lady is a short road to find Jesus Christ, both because it is a road from which we do not stray, and because as I have just said, it is a road which we tread with joy and facility, and consequently with promptitude. We make more progress in a brief period of submission to and dependence on Mary, than in whole years of following our own will and of relying upon ourselves. It is a perfect way: This practice of devotion to our Blessed Lady is also a perfect path by which to go and unite ourselves to Jesus, because the blessed Mary is the most perfect and the most holy of creatures, and because Jesus, Who has come to us most perfectly, took no other road for His great and admirable journey. The Most High, the Incomprehensible, the Inaccessible, He Who is, had willed to come to us, little worms of earth, who are nothing. How has He done this? The Most High has come down to us perfectly and divinely, by the humble Mary, without losing anything of His Divinity and Sanctity. So it is by Mary that the very little ones are to ascend perfectly and divinely, without any fear, to the Most High. It is a secure way: This devotion to our Blessed Lady, is also a secure way to go to Jesus and to acquire perfection, by uniting ourselves to Him. It is a secure way because the practice which I am teaching is not new. Indeed, we cannot see how it could be condemned without overturning the foundations of Christianity. It is clear then, that this devotion is not new, and that if it is not common, that is because it is too precious to be relished and practiced by everyone. This devotion is a secure means of going to Jesus Christ, because it is the very characteristic of Our Blessed Lady to conduct us surely to Jesus.
Now Pray: Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
Day 25
True Devotion: Nos. 213-225
Wonderful effects of this devotion
My dear brother, be sure that if you are faithful to the interior and exterior practices of this devotion which I will point out – the following effects will take place in your soul.
First effect: By the light which the Holy Ghost will give you through His dear spouse, Mary, you will understand your own evil, your corruption and your incapacity for anything good. In other words, the humble Mary will communicate to you a portion of her profound humility, which will make you despise yourself, despise nobody else, but love to be despised yourself.
Second effect: Our Blessed lady also will give you a portion of her faith, which was the greatest of all faiths, that were ever on this earth, greater than all the faiths of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints put together.
Third effect: This Mother of fair love will take away from your heart all scruple and all disorder of servile fear.
Fourth effect: Our Blessed Lady will fill you with great confidence in God and in herself because you will not be approaching Jesus by yourself, but always by that good Mother.
Fifth effect: The soul of our Blessed Lady will communicate itself to you, to glorify the Lord. Her spirit will enter into the place of yours to rejoice in God, her salvation, provided only that you are faithful to the practices of this devotion.
Sixth effect: If Mary, who is the tree of life, is well cultivated in our soul by fidelity to the practices of this devotion, she will bear fruit in her own time, and her fruit is none other than Jesus Christ.
Seventh effect: By this practice, faithfully observed, you will give Jesus more glory in a month, than by any other practice, however difficult, in many years.
Now Pray: Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
Day 26
True Devotion: Nos. 12-38
If you wish to comprehend the Mother, says a saint, comprehend the Son, for she is the worthy Mother of God. Here, let every tongue be mute. Up to this time, the divine Mary has been unknown, and that is the reason Jesus Christ is not known as He ought to be. If then the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ are to come into the world, they will be but a necessary consequence of the knowledge and the kingdom of the most holy Virgin Mary, who brought Him into the world for the first time, and will make His second advent full of splendor.
Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His infinite majesty less than an atom; or rather she is nothing at all, because He is “He Who Is,” consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now an absolute need of the Holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His Will, and for the manifestation of His Glory. He has but to will in order to do everything. Nevertheless, God, having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works by the Most Holy Virgin, ever since He created her, we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct.
Mary is the queen of heaven and earth by grace, as Jesus is the King of them by nature and by conquest. Now, as the kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally in the heart or the interior of man — according to the words, “The Kingdom of God is within you” — in like manner the kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally in the interior of man; that is to say, his soul. And it is principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible creatures, and so we can call her, as the saints do, the Queen of All Hearts.
Now Pray:Part 3 Daily Prayers
Litany of the Holy Ghost, Litany of the Blessed Virgin,
Ave Maris Stella, St. Louis De Montfort’s Prayer to Mary,
Recitation of the Rosary
