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!
Total Consecration: Why make the Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary?
My brothers and sisters welcome to our series of talks in preparation for Consecration to Our Lady. My name is Br. Julian Mary of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist. First, I would like to invite all of our viewers, followers and all those who want to join us in this wonderful invitation from a great Marian apostle, St Louis de Montfort back during his time, to consecrate ourselves to Our Lady, and I want you to get a copy of his book True Devotion. The book is of high caliber, recommended by many saints and popes both in their writings and examples.
St Pius X says, “I heartily recommend True Devotion to The Blessed Virgin Mary, so admirably written by Blessed de Montfort, and to all who read it grant the Apostolic benediction.” Pope Pius IX who proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, 1854, declared that St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s devotion to Mary was the best and most acceptable form of devotion to Our Lady.
St. John Paul II’s motto “Totus Tuus” is St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s words “I am all yours” taken from the same book True Devotion. You must have a copy of this book because it contains jewels that perhaps most you did not encounter in your spiritual journey, besides, the manual for Consecration touches a little bit to reinforce the four major preparation for the Consecration. (We will talk about these four major preparations later). Perhaps the saint wants you to read the book before taking up this consecration, as you should, and I would highly encourage. Another thing that you must have is a copy of the manual for Consecration which I made mention earlier, published by Montfort’s publications. The title of this little book is Preparation for Total Consecration according to St. Louis de Montfort which contains all the spiritual readings and prayers. So, two things are very important: the book True Devotion to Our Lady and the little book Preparation for Total Consecration, both under Montfort’s Publications. To get familiarity with the book and the Marian spirituality of St. Louis Marie de Montfort will lead us to a better understanding of what consecration to Our Lady is all about and then from this we will move on to our main goal, Consecrating ourselves to Jesus through the hands of the Blessed Virgin.
Why is this consecration to Our Lady so important? There are several reasons St. Louis Marie de Montfort outlined in his book, but I would like to summarize his teachings in this way: The goal of life is holiness, our sanctification, to be with God for all eternity, and to have communion with Him even in this life. To become holy and to be with God, it is necessary to practice virtues. The problem is our corrupt nature, because of the original sin, our personal sins, and our strong tendencies toward sins called concupiscence, and so the journey towards holiness is arduous, is not easy. In all of these, it is very difficult for us to go on in this journey without God and his grace; for grace is a supernatural help from God. Our Lord is very clear in the Gospel “without me you can do nothing”. But where can we find grace? The answer is God. But the distribution of God’s graces, the Dispenser of His graces is none other than the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is through the hands of the Virgin Mary that God gives us his graces. This is the teaching of the saint following St Bonaventure. Little St. Jacinta told Lucia. “It is through the Immaculate Hearts that we obtain graces.” Therefore, consecration to Our Lady is so important. Let us explain this further, as we continue in our series and we will begin with the question, how to do this Consecration?
