A question about St. Louis De Montfort's Prayer to Mary

[Shana]

I want to do the consecration to Jesus through Mary, but it is difficult for me to sincerely pray this part a of one of the prayers:

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that
which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to
suffer joyfully without human consolation;

You see over the past year or so God has blessed me and consoled me by revealing the Holy Spirit to me. By praying this am I telling Him to take these spiritual pleasures away? Why would I want that? If they are taken away am I praying for them to be taken away for the rest of my life? I could understand them being taken away for a time so I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me, mostly while praying before the tabernacle, has helped me advance in holiness greatly and I don’t want that to be taken away for the rest of my life. Someone help!

 

[simple_soul]

I want to do the consecration to Jesus through Mary, but it is difficult for me to sincerely pray this part a of one of the prayers:

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that
which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to
suffer joyfully without human consolation;

You see over the past year or so God has blessed me and consoled me by revealing the Holy Spirit to me. By praying this am I telling Him to take these spiritual pleasures away? Why would I want that? If they are taken away am I praying for them to be taken away for the rest of my life? I could understand them being taken away for a time so I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me, mostly while praying before the tabernacle, has helped me advance in holiness greatly and I don’t want that to be taken away for the rest of my life. Someone help!

I do not think this is what you are asking.

When I say the prayer I believe that I am asking for God’s will to be done and that I find that oneness with Him in accepting it. I also believe I am asking for the will to love God for the sake of loving God and to not love God because of the spiritual pleasures, and to not depend on human consolation with all of my suffering.
Maybe I have it wrong but it makes more sense to me. Maybe someone can explain it better and offer more insite to it…

 

[Hlafdige]

What person could be freer and happier than one who is able to believe sincerely and suffer joyfully? No one could do that without being deeply connected to grace. And that’s what you are praying for, isn’t it?
I agree with the previous poster: What this prayer is about is essentially, “Take the world and give me Jesus”. As St. Teresa of Ávila said: He who has God, has everything.

 

[jmjconder]

I want to do the consecration to Jesus through Mary, but it is difficult for me to sincerely pray this part a of one of the prayers:

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that
which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to
suffer joyfully without human consolation;

You see over the past year or so God has blessed me and consoled me by revealing the Holy Spirit to me. By praying this am I telling Him to take these spiritual pleasures away? Why would I want that? If they are taken away am I praying for them to be taken away for the rest of my life? I could understand them being taken away for a time so I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me, mostly while praying before the tabernacle, has helped me advance in holiness greatly and I don’t want that to be taken away for the rest of my life. Someone help!

You are asking some hard questions that many people never ask let alone seek the answers to. However, without knowing you have answered your own question within your own post when you said:

I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me

Detachment is a key to growing in holiness, along with humility. It is so hard for us not to become dependent on consolations because they give us an assurance of God’s presence. However, our faith cannot be based on feelings and when those consolations are not there we need to recognize those times as normal not as something wrong in our spiritual life. It is very rare that God’s withdraws Himself for long periods of time (like in the life of Blessed Mother Teresa) and during this time we are called even more to be faithful to God and let Him know how much we truly love Him no matter what. From the **Imitation of Christ **in Book II Chapter 11 it says:

FEW LOVE THE CROSS OF JESUSJESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus – love that is flee from all self-interest and self-love! Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands.
If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: "When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘we are unprofitable servants.’"17
Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: "I am alone and poor."18 No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all.

I am with three families praying the Total Consecration, some of us are renewing our promise for the second/third time. We will unite ourselves with you and everyone who will complete the Consecration on Saturday.

May God bless your desire to grow closer to Him through Mary! God Be Praised!

 

[Epistemes]

I want to do the consecration to Jesus through Mary, but it is difficult for me to sincerely pray this part a of one of the prayers:

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that
which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to
suffer joyfully without human consolation;

You see over the past year or so God has blessed me and consoled me by revealing the Holy Spirit to me. By praying this am I telling Him to take these spiritual pleasures away? Why would I want that? If they are taken away am I praying for them to be taken away for the rest of my life? I could understand them being taken away for a time so I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me, mostly while praying before the tabernacle, has helped me advance in holiness greatly and I don’t want that to be taken away for the rest of my life. Someone help!

Shana,

At the heart of St. Louis’s Prayer to Mary, which is at the heart of the true devotion and thus at the heart of true Christian faith and love, is the idea of loving Mary (and thus Christ) because she (he) is lovable. We don’t love either of them because we hope to gain anything, rather we love them because they are so good and so holy and deserving of our love and devotion. This doesn’t mean that spiritual pleasures won’t happen, that we won’t receive consolations, but, as jmjconder mentions above, we shouldn’t become attached to these consolations and spiritual pleasures. The Imitation of Christ says,

He who wishes to be too secure in time of peace will often become too dejected and fearful in time of trial. If you were wise enough to remain always humble and small in your own eyes, and to restrain and rule your spirit well, you would not fall so quickly into danger and offense. When a spirit of fervor is enkindled within you, you may well meditate on how you will feel when the fervor leaves.

Likewise, St. Therese of the Child Jesus’s mother, Blessed Zelie Martin, once commented to her sister-in-law that she was highly suspicious of remaining “happy” for long periods of time: she knew a trial was imminent.

St. Louis isn’t asking us to perform the impossible by this devotion. Even he could understand when it was practically better to receive spiritual consolation and remain faithful rather than to hollowly sacrifice all consolations and become unfaithful. If there are times when you think you can render into Mary’s hands all consolations and spiritual pleasures and remain faithful, do so; but don’t do it because you think you might earn something from it, but do it because you reocgnize in Mary and Her Son the infinite goodness and loving kindness which they are. However, if you can’t make such a sacrifice ever in your life, then it’s no loss, provided you (again) continue to love both Mary and Her Son for who and what they are.

I hope this helps!

 

[Monica4316]

I want to do the consecration to Jesus through Mary, but it is difficult for me to sincerely pray this part a of one of the prayers:

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that
which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to
suffer joyfully without human consolation;

You see over the past year or so God has blessed me and consoled me by revealing the Holy Spirit to me. By praying this am I telling Him to take these spiritual pleasures away? Why would I want that? If they are taken away am I praying for them to be taken away for the rest of my life? I could understand them being taken away for a time so I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me, mostly while praying before the tabernacle, has helped me advance in holiness greatly and I don’t want that to be taken away for the rest of my life. Someone help!

Shana, I think with that prayer, you’re just telling God that you love Him more than the consolations He gives. That if it’s His will for you to suffer for a time, you’d accept that, even if it means not receiving anything else. When you say this prayer, you’re being completely open to God’s will for you even at cost to yourself. He loves that!

It doesn’t mean that God will never give you consolations. It just means that you won’t be attached to them, and when you’ll receive them, you’ll thank Him and move on. And when you won’t receive them, your faith will still be strong (even if it is strong now, it will be even stronger.) there’s nothing to worry about here at all

I know what you’re talking about, but try to see it like… the Holy Spirit is more than consolations… we should seek spiritual fruit first. Consolations do encourage us though. I know, I grew so much closer to God when He allowed me to feel His presence a bit in the Blessed Sacrament. And you know, He still does at times (even though I’ve prayed this prayer)

but this is also true: we grow **even closer **to Him when we have no consolations, but choose to love Him anyway… when we feel nothing before the Tabernacle, but we still choose to adore Him, just for His sake. He is so pleased with such prayers. Often, suffering and spiritual dryness sanctifies us, if we let it, and offer it to God in union with Christ’s suffering on the Cross.

God bless you

 

[Lainey63]

I want to do the consecration to Jesus through Mary, but it is difficult for me to sincerely pray this part a of one of the prayers:

As for my part here below, I wish for no other than that
which was thine: to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures; to
suffer joyfully without human consolation;

You see over the past year or so God has blessed me and consoled me by revealing the Holy Spirit to me. By praying this am I telling Him to take these spiritual pleasures away? Why would I want that? If they are taken away am I praying for them to be taken away for the rest of my life? I could understand them being taken away for a time so I don’t become dependent on them or love God’s gifts more than I love God Himself but Him revealing Himself to me, mostly while praying before the tabernacle, has helped me advance in holiness greatly and I don’t want that to be taken away for the rest of my life. Someone help!

Human consolation is much different than divine consolations. God will give you His divine consolations when He wills it. Don’t worry about it.
I remember this story someone told about a father who gave his daughter a fake pearl necklace and she loved that necklace so much. Every night the father asked her for the necklace and every night she told him no because she loved them so because they were from him. But he kept asking and finally one night with tears in her eyes she gave him the pearls and he took them. After he took the fake pearl necklace he gave her another box and inside was a pearl necklace, but this was made of real pearls and it was much more beautiful than the other of course. I hope that helps.