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Jen7
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Thank you for this. Im going to stick with the prep / reading right now since I still have a few weeks left. I’ll decide at the end about saying the consecration or not…
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Edwyn
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@Jen7, the others have done a really good job in trying to explain St Louis’ words in relation to your mom. Let me now try to explain what he meant in general terms about “Slavery” because, as somebody else has mentioned, St Louis de Montfort used a flowery French that is hard to translate adequately to modern English and thus this may help you even more.
What St Louis meant by “Slavery of love” is something you should be quite intimate with: the fact that free will is all about limitations. If you choose to go to one place or do one thing, you cut yourself off from going to another place or doing another thing at the same time. And if you choose somebody as your spouse, then you are cut off from romantic relationships with anyone else. Freedom is all about slavery. And to love somebody is the greatest freedom and thus the greatest slavery one can do.
Now remember that if you consecrate yourself to Jesus through Mary then you are acknowledging that this is the best, safest, easiest, and shortest route to glorifying God and getting to heaven in conjunction with the Sacraments of the Catholic Church (Treatise, par. 55). It is important therefore that part of the vow of said consecration is never, to one’s best abilities, neglect going to Mary for anything and everything. Constancy of free will is therefore one of the hallmarks of this devotion (Treatise, par. 109), and this is in general terms what it means to be a “slave of love” to Mary.
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What St Louis meant by “Slavery of love” is something you should be quite intimate with: the fact that free will is all about limitations. If you choose to go to one place or do one thing, you cut yourself off from going to another place or doing another thing at the same time. And if you choose somebody as your spouse, then you are cut off from romantic relationships with anyone else. Freedom is all about slavery. And to love somebody is the greatest freedom and thus the greatest slavery one can do.
Now remember that if you consecrate yourself to Jesus through Mary then you are acknowledging that this is the best, safest, easiest, and shortest route to glorifying God and getting to heaven in conjunction with the Sacraments of the Catholic Church (Treatise, par. 55). It is important therefore that part of the vow of said consecration is never, to one’s best abilities, neglect going to Mary for anything and everything. Constancy of free will is therefore one of the hallmarks of this devotion (Treatise, par. 109), and this is in general terms what it means to be a “slave of love” to Mary.
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Edwyn
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On how this “slavery” affects prayer, merits, and intentions: it does not change anything important concerning us compared to praying directly to God, only that it gives more glory to God and even gives us and our loved ones more benefits.
First of all, even when we pray directly to God we will not necessarily get what we want. It will always depend on the Divine Will what the final disposition is. But then one might say that in the consecration it is Mary who makes the final disposition and even that Mary, even if she will not, has the power to choose which prayers, intentions, and merits will reach God Himself.
Considering the latter first, it is a laughably ridiculous concept. God is omniscient and omnipotent, it is impossible to keep anything from Him, and Mary of all people knows this, and even St Louis de Montfort acknowledged this. In fact, Mary does the complete opposite. He wrote in his other work The Secret of Mary that in the Consecration, Mary “must become, as it were, an Oratory for the soul where we offer up our prayers to God without fear of being ignored” (Secret, par. 47). To think so otherwise is a gross misunderstanding of St Louis’ works.
For the former concept, that Mary has the final say in how our prayers, petitions, intentions, and merits will be applied in the Consecration, it is more complex than that. St Louis de Montfort wrote:
So in summary, there is no deficiency whatsoever in having Mary manage completely our spiritual goods compared to going directly to God. In fact, we glorify God more by going through Mary, and we in turn receive many benefits. For as St Louis de Montfort wrote: “The Blessed Virgin, mother of gentleness and mercy, never allows herself to be surpassed in love and generosity” (Treatise, par. 144)
First of all, even when we pray directly to God we will not necessarily get what we want. It will always depend on the Divine Will what the final disposition is. But then one might say that in the consecration it is Mary who makes the final disposition and even that Mary, even if she will not, has the power to choose which prayers, intentions, and merits will reach God Himself.
Considering the latter first, it is a laughably ridiculous concept. God is omniscient and omnipotent, it is impossible to keep anything from Him, and Mary of all people knows this, and even St Louis de Montfort acknowledged this. In fact, Mary does the complete opposite. He wrote in his other work The Secret of Mary that in the Consecration, Mary “must become, as it were, an Oratory for the soul where we offer up our prayers to God without fear of being ignored” (Secret, par. 47). To think so otherwise is a gross misunderstanding of St Louis’ works.
For the former concept, that Mary has the final say in how our prayers, petitions, intentions, and merits will be applied in the Consecration, it is more complex than that. St Louis de Montfort wrote:
So even though in the Consecration we intend for Mary to have the final say on our spiritual goods, it is actually done in cooperation and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit: God Himself.I have said that the spirit of Mary is the spirit of God because she was never led by her own spirit, but always by the spirit of God, who made himself master of her to such an extent that he became her very spirit. (Treatise, par. 258)
So in summary, there is no deficiency whatsoever in having Mary manage completely our spiritual goods compared to going directly to God. In fact, we glorify God more by going through Mary, and we in turn receive many benefits. For as St Louis de Montfort wrote: “The Blessed Virgin, mother of gentleness and mercy, never allows herself to be surpassed in love and generosity” (Treatise, par. 144)
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This is terrific!Mary is not the mother you had. She is the mother you should have had .
Mary is the mother who would have been gently loving and nurturing. The mother who would have guided you without controlling you. The mother who would have helped you grow into the freedom of your adult life.
Mary is the mother you can trust.
And this is something that has always scared me about being a father. I’ve seen people who had overly strict, authoritarian fathers who were absolutely terrified of God the Father. I worry about what kind of father I have been to my children and how that affects their concept and relationship with God. I hope their experience of “father” through me has been a help, not a hindrance, to their faith…
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