Feb. 22 - Day 3

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing to read Chapter 1 of St. Louis De Montfort’s True Devotion (online version HERE), I stopped yesterday to ponder especially:

1. Since grace enhances our human nature and glory adds a still greater perfection to grace, it is certain that our Lord remains in heaven just as much the Son of Mary as he was on earth. Consequently he has retained the submissiveness and obedience of the most perfect of all children towards the best of all mothers.

We must take care, however, not to consider this dependence as an abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Mary, infinitely inferior to her Son, who is God, does not command him in the same way as an earthly mother would command her child who is beneath her. Since she is completely transformed in God by that grace and glory which transforms all the saints in him, she does not ask or wish or do anything which is contrary to the eternal and changeless will of God. When therefore we read in the writings of Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine, Saint Bonaventure, and others that all in heaven and on earth, even God himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which God was pleased to give her is so great that she seems to have the same power as God. Her prayers and requests are so powerful with him that he accepts them as commands in the sense that he never resists his dear mother’s prayer because it is always humble and conformed to his will.

Moses by the power of his prayer curbed God’s anger against the Israelites so effectively that the infinitely great and merciful Lord was unable to withstand him and asked Moses to let him be angry and punish that rebellious people. How much greater, then, will be the prayer of the humble Virgin Mary, worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful with the King of heaven than the prayers and intercession of all the angels and saints in heaven and on earth

.
The mystery of the God-Man, the hypostatic union of His Human Nature and His Divine Nature in One Divine Person is something we cannot completely understand. Nevertheless He reveals Himself to us in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. He promised that the Holy Spirit would bring us into the complete Truth and so we continue to pray and seek to learn more about the spirit of Jesus and how we can empty ourselves of the spirit of the world which is opposed to the spirit of Jesus.

I continue to ponder the profound humility of Jesus in becoming like us in all things except sin. He shows us His willingness to be dependent upon Mary as an infant and in His growing years. He shows us His love for her continuing through His life, death, resurrection and ascension and how He continues to honor her in heaven. In contrast, we see the spirit of the world which wants to be “self-sufficient” and ignores God in preference to itself. We see the world showing such dishonor to mothers and many dishonoring Mary, refusing to even acknowledge her as the Mother of God.

Jesus loves His Mother, seeing in her one whom the Father has chosen and seeing Mary totally given to God in her constant “Yes” to His Will. The spirit of Jesus loves and does the Father’s will but the spirit of the world loves itself. May God help us to “empty ourselves of the spirit of the world” as far as within us lies. We do not know ourselves as completely as God alone can know us and so we pray to the Holy Spirit to help us. Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills to know, love and serve you as Jesus and Mary did on this earth. Purify our hearts from those selfish desires we don’t even recognize. Mary, our Mother intercede for us.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

I have found this Youtube video on the Consecration very helpful. It explains what this means and the stages of the process. I very much recommend it to those who would like more information about this consecration.

youtube.com/watch?v=wyJ3eJqVZwg

 

[MariaChristi]

I have found this Youtube video on the Consecration very helpful. It explains what this means and the stages of the process. I very much recommend it to those who would like more information about this consecration.

youtube.com/watch?v=wyJ3eJqVZwg

Dear Contra Mundum,

Thanks for the link. I listened to it for about 10 minutes or so and I’m glad that a layman has put on Youtube his own experience with the 33 Day Preparation for Consecration. It is close to an hour long and I don’t have time to listen to the complete video this morning but I’m happy you found it helpful and perhaps others will find it helpful too.

 

[acacia12]

“53. What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility. What Eve ruined and lost by disobedience Mary saved by obedience. By obeying the serpent, Eve ruined her children as well as herself and delivered them up to him. Mary by her perfect fidelity to God saved her children with herself and consecrated them to his divine majesty.”

I am relearning about Our Mother Mary. It is starting to feel more personal. I am getting to know her personality and see how God sees her and feels about her. How much trust he put in her to carry Jesus in her womb and raise him. Mary has been entrusted to raise us too…her children. Her example as a parent to us is beautiful. I am truly grateful.

 

[MariaChristi]

“53. What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility. What Eve ruined and lost by disobedience Mary saved by obedience. By obeying the serpent, Eve ruined her children as well as herself and delivered them up to him. Mary by her perfect fidelity to God saved her children with herself and consecrated them to his divine majesty.”

I am relearning about Our Mother Mary. It is starting to feel more personal. I am getting to know her personality and see how God sees her and feels about her. How much trust he put in her to carry Jesus in her womb and raise him. Mary has been entrusted to raise us too…her children. Her example as a parent to us is beautiful. I am truly grateful.

Dear acacia,

Thanks so much for your reply. I thank the Lord with you for His teaching us more each day. Yes, by God’s Grace, I hope we are all learning.

 

[marywarfield]

Day 4- Struck by St. Louis De Montfort’s discussion
of seven types of false devotion. And I realized that
myself and to some degree all of us experience some
of this at one time or another. And decided the
answer to all seven false devotions is to ask God
through Mary for strengthening of true devotion.

I find the most common false devotion form these
days is the “scholarly”. Chapter 2 Fifth Principle
ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm#Ch.%207

 

[MariaChristi]

Day 4- Struck by St. Louis De Montfort’s discussion
of seven types of false devotion. And I realized that
myself and to some degree all of us experience some
of this at one time or another. And decided the
answer to all seven false devotions is to ask God
through Mary for strengthening of true devotion.

I find the most common false devotion form these
days is the “scholarly”. Chapter 2 Fifth Principle
ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm#Ch.%207

Dear Marywarfield,

Thanks for your comment. Actually your link went back to Chapter 7 instead of Chapter 2 so I’m posting here Chapter 2, Fifth principle - which of course is so true:

Fifth principle: It is difficult to keep the graces received from God

1. It is very difficult, considering our weakness and frailty, to keep the graces and treasures we have received from God.

1. We carry this treasure, which is worth more than heaven and earth, in fragile vessels, that is, in a corruptible body and in a weak and wavering soul which requires very little to depress and disturb it.

1. 1. The evil spirits, cunning thieves that they are, can take us by surprise and rob us of all we possess. They are watching day and night for the right moment. They roam incessantly seeking to devour us and to snatch from us in one brief moment of sin all the grace and merit we have taken years to acquire. Their malice and their experience, their cunning and their numbers ought to make us ever fearful of such a misfortune happening to us. People, richer in grace and virtue, more experienced and advanced in holiness than we are, have been caught off their guard and robbed and stripped of everything. How many cedars of Lebanon, how many stars of the firmament have we sadly watched fall and lose in a short time their loftiness and their brightness!

What has brought about this unexpected reverse? Not the lack of grace, for this is denied no one. It was a lack of humility; they considered themselves stronger and more self-sufficient than they really were. They thought themselves well able to hold on to their treasures. They believed their house secure enough and their coffers strong enough to safeguard their precious treasure of grace. It was because of their unconscious reliance on self - although it seemed to them that they were relying solely on the grace of God - that the most just Lord left them to themselves and allowed them to be despoiled. If they had only known of the wonderful devotion that I shall later explain, they would have entrusted their treasure to Mary, the powerful and faithful Virgin. She would have kept it for them as if it were her own possession and even have considered that trust an obligation of justice.

1. 1. It is difficult to persevere in holiness because of the excessively corrupting influence of the world. The world is so corrupt that it seems almost inevitable that religious hearts be soiled, if not by its mud, at least by its dust. It is something of a miracle for anyone to stand firm in the midst of this raging torrent and not be swept away; to weather this stormy sea and not be drowned, or robbed by pirates; to breathe this pestilential air and not be contaminated by it. It is Mary, the singularly faithful Virgin over whom Satan had never any power, who works this miracle for those who truly love her.

 

[tawny]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing to read Chapter 1 of St. Louis De Montfort’s True Devotion (online version HERE), I stopped yesterday to ponder especially:
.
The mystery of the God-Man, the hypostatic union of His Human Nature and His Divine Nature in One Divine Person is something we cannot completely understand. Nevertheless He reveals Himself to us in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. He promised that the Holy Spirit would bring us into the complete Truth and so we continue to pray and seek to learn more about the spirit of Jesus and how we can empty ourselves of the spirit of the world which is opposed to the spirit of Jesus.

I continue to ponder the profound humility of Jesus in becoming like us in all things except sin. He shows us His willingness to be dependent upon Mary as an infant and in His growing years. He shows us His love for her continuing through His life, death, resurrection and ascension and how He continues to honor her in heaven. In contrast, we see the spirit of the world which wants to be “self-sufficient” and ignores God in preference to itself. We see the world showing such dishonor to mothers and many dishonoring Mary, refusing to even acknowledge her as the Mother of God.

Jesus loves His Mother, seeing in her one whom the Father has chosen and seeing Mary totally given to God in her constant “Yes” to His Will. The spirit of Jesus loves and does the Father’s will but the spirit of the world loves itself. May God help us to “empty ourselves of the spirit of the world” as far as within us lies. We do not know ourselves as completely as God alone can know us and so we pray to the Holy Spirit to help us. Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills to know, love and serve you as Jesus and Mary did on this earth. Purify our hearts from those selfish desires we don’t even recognize. Mary, our Mother intercede for us.

Praying