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
We are now on the 5th day of the First 12 days of preparation renouncing the spirit of the world. Again, my name is Br. Julian Mary from the Knights of the Holy Eucharist. Thank you for joining us.
After taking the four days journey, preparation, today’s fifth reading from the Imitation of Christ provides us a soothing balm, a glimpse that in our journey, we come to realize that we are not alone, for God is with us providing us the graces and consolations. Therefore, there is no reason for us to give up. Let us rejoice and hope in the gift of new consolation, overflowing with gratitude and glorifying God. As the Book of Psalms says, “Not to us Oh Lord, not to us but unto thy name give glory…” [Ps. 115:1] The spirit of the world does not glorify God for they seek their own glory. They burnt incense for themselves, praising their own nothingness. All creatures are obliged to give glory to God as we read in the book of Prophet Daniel.
For those of you who are familiar with the Breviary or the Liturgy of the hours, during Solemnities, the second psalm of the morning prayers is a commandment to all of God’s creatures to give praise and glory to the Most High God. Even inanimate and irrational creatures were commanded in this particular psalm to praise and glorify God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is also very clear, the purpose of creation is the glory of God. My dear friends, we exist to give glory to God Our Lord and Savior. St. Louis de Montfort says, “we are all under obligation to give glory to God, but scarcely anyone who acts for this noble end. Either we do not know where the glory of God is to be found, or we do not wish to find it.” [TD # 151] There are some people who do not know where the greater glory of God is to be found. If we do not know, then it is our noble task to find the glory of God. Remember from our previous session: ask, seek, and knock. In this case, we must seek the glory of God. Now, there are some people who do not wish to glorify God because they are blinded by the spirit of the world. This spirit we must renounce.
If we are seeking our own glory, we are seeking our own ruin for we are literally moving toward the deadly plague of destruction. This is what is written in the book Imitation of Christ: “Vainglory is an evil plague.” It’s good to remember, vain glory destroyed even the Light-Bearer in Heaven, for he refused to give glory to God by not obeying the Divine Mandate to serve the Incarnate Word the God-Man and the future Queen of Heaven and Earth, Most Pure, Immaculate, Most Perfect Creature – Mary Most Holy. Who would dare refuse you honor and the glory due your name O Lord. A great warning to all who do not renounce the spirit of this world. Together with all the faithful angels in heaven, we proclaim with great enthusiasm: “All glory belongs by right to our God” Mary Queen of angels, pray for us. Mary is our Queen. Queen of angels is one beautiful title of Our Lady we invoke when we pray the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. When Satan says: “I will not serve”, we say “We serve our God and Mary Our Queen”. This is a manifestation of our Faith, Hope and Love and an expression of our heartfelt gratitude we owe to God and our Most Loving Mother. To reach such a high degree of faith hope and love, to make our heart overflowing with thanksgiving for all the gifts and graces that Our Lady obtain for us from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us all be united together with the bonds of love, united to the love of God who first loved us, and then we will surely have the strength to renounce the spirit of the world.
Readings and Prayers for Day 5 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: Continued: Book 3, chapter 40
Hence, if I knew well how to cast aside all earthly consolation, either to attain devotion or because of the necessity which, in the absence of human solace, compels me to seek You alone, then I could deservedly hope for Your grace and rejoice in the gift of new consolation.
Thanks be to You from Whom all things come, whenever it is well with me. In Your sight I am vanity and nothingness, a weak, unstable man. In what, therefore, can I glory, and how can I wish to be highly regarded? Is it because I am nothing? This, too, is utterly vain. Indeed, the greatest vanity is the evil plague of empty self-glory, because it draws one away from true glory and robs one of heavenly grace. For when a man is pleased with himself he displeases You, when he pants after human praise he is deprived of true virtue. But it is true glory and holy exultation to glory in You and not in self, to rejoice in Your name rather than in one’s own virtue, and not to delight in any creature except for Your sake. Let Your name, not mine, be praised. Let Your work, not mine, be magnified. Let Your holy name be blessed, but let no human praise be given to me. You are my glory. You are the joy of my heart. In You I will glory and rejoice all the day, and for myself I will glory in nothing but my infirmities.
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.
