Preparing for Consecration

Knowledge of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Acts of love, pious affection for the Blessed Virgin, imitation of her virtues, especially her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual mental prayer, her mortification in all things, her surpassing purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness, and her divine wisdom: "there being," as St. 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.

Reflection

Who of all creatures is the most like Jesus?  There might be a list of saints we could identify as fitting that criteria.  But there is only one creature born without the stain of original sin, and only one in whom Jesus deigned to dwell physically.  Mary is so uniquely and intimately conformed to Jesus that devotion to her would be a most appropriate means to become united to Jesus.  Jesus completely entrusted himself to his mother.  If we do the same, not only will she honor her role as our mother, but we will have the unique opportunity to meet Jesus within that tabernacle which God chose for his Son!  And while we might at first be concerned about giving her everything, she will not be outdone in generosity to those who hold back nothing of themselves! – Bernadette Harmon

True Devotion to Mary, Nos. 120-121, St. Louis de Montfort

Nature of perfect devotion to the Blessed Virgin or perfect consecration to Jesus Christ.

120. As all perfection consists in our being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus it naturally follows that the most perfect of all devotions is that which conforms, unites, and consecrates us most completely to Jesus. Now of all God's creatures Mary is the most conformed to Jesus. It therefore follows that, of all devotions, devotion to her makes for the most effective consecration and conformity to him. The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus. That is why perfect consecration to Jesus is but a perfect and complete consecration of oneself to the Blessed Virgin, which is the devotion I teach; or in other words, it is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy baptism.

121. This devotion consists in giving oneself entirely to Mary in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her. It requires us to give:

1. Our body with its senses and members;
2. Our soul with its faculties;
3. Our present material possessions and all we shall acquire in the future;
4. Our interior and spiritual possessions, that is, our merits, virtues and good actions of the past, the present and the future.

In other words, we give her all that we possess both in our natural life and in our spiritual life as well as everything we shall acquire in the future in the order of nature, of grace, and of glory in heaven. This we do without any reservation, not even of a penny, a hair, or the smallest good deed. And we give for all eternity without claiming or expecting, in return for our offering and our service, any other reward than the honour of belonging to our Lord through Mary and in Mary, even though our Mother were not - as in fact she always is - the most generous and appreciative of all God's creatures.