August 14 is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe..
Fr. Kolbe is famous for establishing the Militia of Mary Immaculate and promoting total consecration to Our Lady.
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Consecration to Our Lady is not complicated.
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August 14 is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Terry,
ReplyDeleteCan you explain a bit how to practically live out the consecration to Our Lady? I want to do this and I'm intrigued by what you say, that it is not complicated.
Thank you
Patrick
It is very, very simple. True devotion to Our Lady is total consecration to her as our Mother, our Queen, our advocate, all the titles and perogatives by which she is venerated by the Church. It is the lving out of our Baptismal promises in holy abandonement to Our Lady. We allow ourselves to be dependent upon her, to be formed by her, to be taught by her. It is much like the doctrine of holy abandonement as defined by De Caussade.
ReplyDeleteOne prepares for the consecration through prayer and study, best outlined by Louis De Montfort. Once the consecration is made, one's devotion grows and is deepened in Our Lady who leads us to Christ more intimately and directly than we are able to do on our own.
Everything is simple in the spiritual life and we often complicate it with our personal piety, novelties, personal rituals flowery prayers, and preoccupation with theological concepts. The emphasis is frequently upon ourselves instead of upon the object of our devotion.
The consecration is a complete abandonement to God through the Blessed Virgin who is his perfect tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the gate of heaven, the cause of our joy. As St. Therese said, she is more mother than queen, and therefore she understands little children who consecrate themselves to her without complexity or anxious concern about themselves or how they are doing.
To live out the consecration is to keep the commandments, avoid sin, be faithful to one's duties in one's state in life, to pray and receive the sacraments, and so on. At Fatima Our Lady outlined the consecration perfectly for us. It is the Gospel message of denying one's very self - selling our will and giving it to Our Lady - to dispense with the merits or profits as she sees fit.
The way of total consecration is the little way of confidence and love.
Very good presentation of total consecration, Terry. Isn't it interesting that I wrote about the very same thing on the same day? I tried, in my own way, to show of the often overlooked Scriptural foundations of total consecration. I too think that Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort's method is the best, but there is such richness in the consecrations composed by the saints or by other holy people. I love the one by Père Croset (which you can find on Vultus Christi) and the very ancient one by Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo. Yes, the little way of abandonment and love: "handing oneself over" to Love through Mary.
ReplyDeleteThanks Father - I read your post several times - excellent.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy Ireland - please say a prayer for me at Knock.