What is Total Consecration?
Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary is a 33-day course that builds on True Devotion to Mary according to St. Louis Marie de Montfort. It’s an amazing way to grow deeper in your faith and draw closer to Jesus through Mary. Each of the 33 days includes a short video, some written reflections, and prayer time. Join us!
First 12 days: Reflection, Day 10
Welcome back to our session on this tenth day of the First 12 days of preparation for Consecration to Our Lady. My name is Br. Julian Mary of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, we are still following St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s renouncement of the spirit of the world.
Today we will encounter the great consolation that God has given us and to all our viewers and followers who truly renounce the spirit of the world. This is the hidden sweetness and joy of despising the world and to serve God. Everything here is an outburst of the soul, filled with consolation who truly experience the joy that comes from God’s infinite love and goodness and not from the things of this world. What else could satisfy the soul’s longing other than God? It is through Him and in Him that we can taste the sweetness of God’s Love. Created things cannot and can never satisfy us. If we see things in this world as the end of our search for joy, then we miss the point. Earthly things are all passing and eventually will vanish from our site. Attachment to them will bring us to that same end.
We are given today this wonderful opportunity, to savor how sweet it is; how good it is beyond all good, when God manifested his grace and friendship to us; when we have a filial relationship with God. This is enough to impel us to serve Him out of gratitude because man is loved and given the abundance of God’s love.
So, in this last two days of the first stage of preparation, we desire to renounce the spirit of the world. The end of every desire is always pleasure and joy. The joy that the soul experiences in renouncing the spirit of the world is a gift from God given to that soul and then he perceives the supreme good that exists beyond all good. The joy moves, better yet love moves us joyfully, and at the same time rests with so much peace because the soul possesses what he ardently desires. St. Augustine after seeking pleasure in this world realized and exclaimed, “Thou hast made me for thyself, O Lord, and my heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
St Louis de Montfort was right, the spirit of the world is contrary to the spirit of Jesus and Mary and therefore we must renounce this worldly spirit. This is an inspiration the saint perceived because in Jesus there is perfect happiness, and the repose of the will called joy, and then the soul becomes joyful at the discovery of the truth which is in Jesus Christ.
Let us be aware that the good things are only a foretaste of the joys of heaven. There are times joys and pleasures can be intense that it distracts the mind and prevents proper functioning. For it is in the mind and its reasoning to determine whether or not, earthly pleasures lead to the joy of possessing God. If reason judges that they do not, then man pursues such little joys at the danger of losing his greatest joy. Then reason will tell us, to renounce immediately the joys that prevent us from our union with God.
Along the way, we come to realize the great honor and the great glory in serving God with Our Lady whatever vocation we chose in life and the incomparable sweetness we experience when we with Our Lady win the battle against the worldly spirits.
Readings and Prayers for Day 10 of 33
Spiritual Exercises: Examine your conscience, pray, practice renouncement, mortification, purity of heart; this purity is an indispensable condition for contemplating God in heaven, to see Him on earth and to know Him by the light of faith.
Imitation: Book 3, chapter 10
To despise the world and serve God is sweet
Now again I will speak, Lord, and will not be silent. I will speak to the hearing of my God, my Lord, and my King Who is in heaven. How great, O Lord, is the multitude of Your mercies which You have stored up for those who love You. But what are You to those who love You? What are You to those who serve You with their whole heart?
Truly beyond the power of words is the sweetness of contemplation You give to those who love You. To me You have shown the sweetness of Your charity, especially in having made me when I did not exist, in having brought me back to serve You when I had gone far astray from You, in having commanded me to love You.
O Fountain of unceasing love, what shall I say of You? How can I forget You, Who have been pleased to remember me even after I had wasted away and perished? You have shown mercy to Your servant beyond all hope, and have exhibited grace and friendship beyond his deserving. What return shall I make to You for this grace? For it is not given every man to forsake all things, to renounce the world, and undertake the religious life. Is it anything great that I should serve You Whom every creature is bound to serve? It should not seem much to me; instead it should appear great and wonderful that You condescend to receive into Your service one who is so poor and unworthy. Behold, all things are Yours, even those which I have and by which I serve You. Behold, heaven and earth which You created for the service of man, stand ready, and each day they do whatever You command. But even this is little, for You have appointed angels also to minister to man — yea more than all this — You Yourself have condescended to serve man and have promised to give him Yourself. What return shall I make for all these thousands of benefits? Would that I could serve You all the days of my life! Would that for but one day I could serve You worthily! Truly You are worthy of all service, all honor, and everlasting praise. Truly You are my Lord, and I am Your poor servant, bound to serve You with all my powers, praising You without ever becoming weary. I wish to do this — this is my desire. Do You supply whatever is wanting in me.
It is a great honor, a great glory to serve You and to despise all things for Your sake. They who give themselves gladly to Your most holy service will possess great grace. They who cast aside all carnal delights for Your love will find the most sweet consolation of the Holy Ghost. They who enter upon the narrow way for Your name and cast aside all worldly care will attain great freedom of mind.
Veni, Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit, Creator Blest)
Come, O Creator Spirit blest!
And in our souls take up Thy rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid,
To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
Great Paraclete! To Thee we cry,
O highest gift of God most high!
O font of life! O fire of love!
And sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts art known,
The finger of God’s hand we own;
The promise of the Father, Thou!
Who dost the tongue with power endow.
Kindle our senses from above,
And make our hearts overflow with love;
With patience firm and virtue high
The weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread,
And grant us Thy true peace instead;
So shall we not, with Thee for guide,
Turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow
The Father and the Son to know,
And Thee, through endless times confessed,
Of both, the eternal Spirit blest.
All glory while the ages run
Be to the Father and the Son
Who rose from death; the same to Thee,
O Holy Ghost, eternally. Amen.
Ave Maris Stella
Hail, bright star of ocean,
God’s own Mother blest,
Ever sinless Virgin,
Gate of heavenly rest.
Taking that sweet Ave
Which from Gabriel came,
Peace confirm within us,
Changing Eva’s name.
Break the captives’ fetters,
Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.
Show thyself a Mother;
May the Word Divine,
Born for us thy Infant,
Hear our prayers through thine.
Virgin all excelling,
Mildest of the mild,
Freed from guilt, preserve us,
Pure and undefiled.
Keep our life all spotless,
Make our way secure,
Till we find in Jesus,
Joy forevermore.
Through the highest Heaven
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.
Magnificat – English
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.
Magnificat – Latin
Magnificat anima mea Dominum;
Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo,
Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae; ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes.
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen ejus, Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam brachio suo;
Dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes.
Sucepit Israel, puerum suum, recordatus misericordiae suae, Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semeni ejus in saecula.
Glory Be – English
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Glory Be – Latin
GLORIA PATRI, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
