Question on de Montfort's Marian Consecration

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Epistemes

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Hello,

Last year (2007) I completed de Montfort’s consecration to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of Fatima, only a month or so after being confirmed into the Church. Since I hadn’t given myself the ability to develop spiritually and to really know my Catholic faith prior to that consecration, I didn’t do well with it afterwards.

The Feast of Fatima went by this past May and I didn’t reconfirm my consecration, as de Montfort requests. However, last night, one full day after the Feast of the Assumption, I felt compelled to reconfirm that consecration, which I did by praying the act of consecration which the individual says on the 34th day. In truth, I feel more ready now to live out that consecration than ever.

My question and concern is, though, that not only have I technically switched feast days (except for the technicality that it was the day after a feast day) but I didn’t complete the 33-day preparation. Does this truly matter? I mean, so long as I live the consecration, this is what matters, right?

I feel silly asking such questions because we’re dealing with a form of spirituality, not divine revelation. I have every intention to pursue this consecration to the end, and next year I will definitely complete the 33-day preparation.
 
I think what matter is that you do the best you could with where you are in your spiritual journey. Consecration is more about inward preparation not just the outward. Furthermore, I think that you could always do the preparation on any next Marian feast day, you don’t have to wait until next year - I don’t think it is a requirement but a suggestion.
 
Epistemes said:
Hello,

Last year (2007) I completed de Montfort’s consecration to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of Fatima, only a month or so after being confirmed into the Church. Since I hadn’t given myself the ability to develop spiritually and to really know my Catholic faith prior to that consecration, I didn’t do well with it afterwards.

The Feast of Fatima went by this past May and I didn’t reconfirm my consecration, as de Montfort requests. However, last night, one full day after the Feast of the Assumption, I felt compelled to reconfirm that consecration, which I did by praying the act of consecration which the individual says on the 34th day. In truth, I feel more ready now to live out that consecration than ever.

My question and concern is, though, that not only have I technically switched feast days (except for the technicality that it was the day after a feast day) but I didn’t complete the 33-day preparation. Does this truly matter? I mean, so long as I live the consecration, this is what matters, right?

I feel silly asking such questions because we’re dealing with a form of spirituality, not divine revelation. I have every intention to pursue this consecration to the end, and next year I will definitely complete the 33-day preparation.
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First of all, St. Louis could not have said the 13th of May because Our Lady appeared last century in Fatima.

Second, it is above all the state of spirit. It is more recomendable to recite it daily. Did the consecration when I was like 10 and had little understanding but I just felt it was something great and elevated like no other thing. The feeling was followed by understanding sometime after. It is good to follow the rules, but let us not be square. It isn’t a magic spell.
 
JMJ / MMM 080901
Hello Epistemes –
I am a very, very old and ancient son of God and from my early youth I have been consecrated to Mary in the manner of Grignon de Montfort. I was almost automatically drawn to her. Not that I felt I “needed” her to talk for me to Jesus. Never. But because I felt a great love for her as my mother.

Do not fuss about the 33 or whatever. Do not fuss about exact days or dates. Sit down. Talk to Mary. Talk WITH Mary. Tell her of your love for her and the two of you just decide what is a good way for you to love and honor and praise and thank your mother. If you need to change it for something better or more practical, talk to Mary and the two of you do it.

Never lose the great and special treasure you have in especially belonging to Mary the Mother of God … and YOUR mother.
John (JohnJFarren) Trinity5635@aol.com
 
I doubt that it truly matters 🙂
I completed the St. Louis Mary de Montfort consecration and preparation all the way through for the first time this year. I started my preparation on October 8, Our Lady of the Rosary day, and officially consecrated myself on Nov. 21, The Presentation of Mary. From my own experience, maybe it IS true that special graces accur from consecrating oneself on a Marian feast day. For example, I tried to actually start my preparation on Oct 7, but my preparation included the full and complete rosary, and I just couldn’t do it, struggled much of the day with motivation!!. Then on October 8, it was somehow completable. 🤷 Maybe I received a grace on a Marian feast day to get the kick-start that I needed to begin. Then my 33 day consecration obviously went over 33 days… can’t remember why but related to the election Rosaries. Yet, I received innumerable graces shortly after completing my consecration on Nov. 21, and marking it with a little sacrifice of kissing the altars of Jesus, Mary, and the saints in my church in secret… I was struggling with lack of motivation and inability to discern my future steps in the next year for my life, and many (not all) of those problems have been miraculously solved in the last month :eek: though I have been struggling with them for the last year 🤷 but struggling by intellect, not struggling by intense continuous (wouldn’t want to be an inconstant devotee) Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Avis Maria Stella, Litany of Humility, and consecration (hoping to add the Liturgy of the Hours) and deep, sustained, and trustful spiritual reading and Daily Mass and Confession and little sacrifices.

Some saint wrote somewhere 😊 sorry I can’t tell you where that we receive more graces by persisting in spiritual dryness than in persisting when it is easy, and my experience might say that that is a truth! It seems that almost every major struggle that I overcome in prayer, almost every time I practice an act of kindness/mercy when all of my being rebels against it and I can barely talk because of inner frustration, I receive my greatest graces and blessings. I’m almost now starting to look forward to suffering because I strongly suspect that I will receive consolations in the long and short-term from it. Which is amazing to me that I am even nearing the point where I am tempted to pray for suffering because I selfishly seek the reward/merit that I seem to receive only after going through suffering.

Anyways, in sum, maybe its the sacrifice that counts! Maybe the Marian feast day is important because Jesus and Mary know our hearts and know that we encountered inconveniences in order to make it a Marian day instead of an ordinary day and so reward the inner and outer struggle that we endured. Maybe the 33 day consecration practice gives blessings because of the humility it takes to submit to St. Louis Mary de Montfort’s teachings because of the authoirty granted to him by the Catholic Church and the discipline it takes to complete the consecration. However, if we follow the slighty different St. Maximilian Maria consecration prayers instead of the St. Louis Mary de Montfort prayers, maybe or maybe not we don’t lose out on graces because we are still humbling ourselves through a different means.

P.S., you might think about joining a local MI chapter to fellowship, pray, and become involved with the pro-life movement. There are chapters in Canada and the United States for the young adult, 18-35 crowd and they do social events like a Christmas party and bowling in addition to beauitful ROSARY PRAYER and pro-life activisim!! More info here: miyouth.org/

May the Holy Spirit through the Immaculate Heart of Mary grace us with the gifts that we most desperately need!! May the LOVE and MERCY of the Sacred Heart of Jesus be proclaimed throughout the world both now and forevermore, everywhere, in the way the Almighty Holy One deems most appropriateness. May you experience Christ’s happiness this Christmas season and forevermore. 🙂

*Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. *

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse.

For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world! For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world! For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

*Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. *
 
Pro_Domina said:
First of all, St. Louis could not have said the 13th of May because Our Lady appeared last century in Fatima.
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GOOD “catch”, Pro Domina! And excellent point and logic!

I agree with the others, “Ep”. Don’t worry about the exact dates… for the de Montfort Consecration. I make one too. I renew it each Saturday morning.

Perhaps I have a different “Consecration” than you have (although, the one I use is by St. Louis de Montfort)… but I don’t remember anything about saying it on a certain day (or certain number of days). 🤷

Hope this helps.
 
MarieVeronica said:
GOOD “catch”, Pro Domina! And excellent point and logic!

I agree with the others, “Ep”. Don’t worry about the exact dates… for the de Montfort Consecration. I make one too. I renew it each Saturday morning.

Perhaps I have a different “Consecration” than you have (although, the one I use is by St. Louis de Montfort)… but I don’t remember anything about saying it on a certain day (or certain number of days). 🤷

Hope this helps.
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Wow, this thread popped back up out of nowhere! :eek:

I’m currently trying to live a rather simplistic devotional life along the lines of St. Josemaria Escriva who advised not to pile devotions one on top of the other. While I’ve not given up my Marian devotion, I’ve incorporated it in a more practical manner than I was previously allowing myself. I think one of the most important points which St. Louis makes is that our Virgin Mother always stands ready to present our humble, weak prayers to Jesus in the most acceptable way possible.
 
allndnothing
JMJ / MMM 081221 Sunday
Hello AveSantaMaria –
I thank God for your love of Jesus and your dedication to the helps God has given us to develop our love relationship with Him.

Truly, though, you give a very long list of devotional action you seek to perform >>> “Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Avis Maria Stella, Litany of Humility, and consecration (hoping to add the Liturgy of the Hours) and deep, sustained, and trustful spiritual reading and Daily Mass and Confession and little sacrifices.” Do you know what I wish? I wish that Jesus could sit down with and with his deep love and face to face speak with you. “Martha, Martha, what are you doing! I treasure your love for me and you by faith that my love for you is without limit. 1) Martha, you are doing far too many devotional activities. Why, you never just sit down and gaze into my face and whisper that you love me … slowly …just a few times … and gaze into me.” And Jesus would have a second thing to share with you. 2) Dear one, I know truly that you mean well and to love me … but I must speak with you about your motives for these very excessive activities. You yourself express what are your motives. You wrote, ‘I’m almost now starting to look forward to suffering because I strongly suspect that I will receive consolations in the long and short-term from it.’ Seriously now, your motive in prayer ought to be to worship me, love me, thank me, express sorrow for sin, ask for truly things, and to better our love relationship. I will give you consolation when I judge it is good for you … and I will also give you dry and empty and seemingly fruitless times when they are what will really bless you. Do not pray for consolations, rather pray to the God of consolation.” And be careful not to seek suffering. Rather hear the advice of St Frances of Sales, who said, ‘Desire nothing. Seek nothing. Refuse nothing.’ It is true that there are certain souls whom I invite to keep me company in my suffering. But these are farther down the road of the Way. I would not have you pray to suffer. Let me take care of that entirely.”

“In our love relationship it definitely is not the sacrifice that counts. What really counts is love and obedience. What would suffering mean if love were absent, if obedience were absent? Nothing. The bad thief on the cross suffered … and blasphemed. You are much too hard on yourself, my precious one. I do the Will of my Father. If it’s time to work, I work … to preach, I preach … and if it’s time to ENJOY the company of people I love, I certainly do that … and enjoy every morsel of the meal we’re sharing. I love to be joyful! And I know how to redeem the world in the way the Father Wills it. Yes, there is a time to suffer properly … and there is a time to sing and dance and enjoy the good things I have created.”

“I’m glad we had this little talk, AveSantaMaria. Think about the things I’ve shared with you.”
“You who toil for the bread you eat … while He pours gifts on His beloved while they slumber.” Psalm 127
John (JohnJFarren) Trinity5635@aol.com
 
Thank you JohnJFarren for your wisdom, insight and wise words. Maybe here is my stupid and correctable logic: Perhaps Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Avis Maris Stella, Litany of Humility, consecration, and hopes to add Liturgy of the Hours (official prayer life of the Church) are tiny when one looks at St. Padre Pio, who said, “The Rosary is The WEAPON”, and as many as 90 rosaries a day in a special form for which he received ecclesiastical permission. Father Thomas Euteneur, President of Human Life International, cites this in The Rosary Batters the Gates of Hell hli.org/sl_2008-10-03.html

Maybe a Rosary is 15 minutes for one mystery and Divine Mercy chaplet, Avis Maris Stella and Litany of Humility are 15 minutes total, and renewal of consecration may be 1-2 min. Maybe to love God with “All our mind, heart, and soul,” it might be ok to devote as much time to God as to check the news and perhaps much more since God is everything. Perhaps one might be especially devoted to the Rosary since Fatima and Kibeho apparitions preached the daily Rosary and Chaplet of Seven Sorrows, and also said that the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide could have been prevented if people prayed more, repented, and converted. In Secret of the Rosary, montfort.org.uk/Writings/Rosary.html St. Louis Mary de Montfort recommends saying the full Rosary, 3 mysteries daily, did himself, convinced many to do so, and was greatly saddened if devotion ran cold.

Maybe prayer is wonderful for other reasons as well. While still at university, a group of students met to pray the Rosary together every night, almost an hour of time due to socialization + Rosary and many of them also went to daily mass on campus. The only quarter that I did this almost nightly, my grades were straight A’s and my social life was full. Perhaps unrelated, maybe not - at the same time I stopped attending, my extreme trouble in school started, almost had my graduation delayed, and much more problems with friends.

“The one who prays a lot saves himself. The one who prays little is in danger. The one who does not pray loses his soul.” St. Padre Pio

You are very right that we should seek the God of consolations and not the consolations of God. You are also very blessed and loved by God to be at a level where you can pray to Jesus for all those reasons and desire no consolations. Maybe I am just weak in faith and so that is why Jesus sent them to me! :o

Perhaps one would not have to worry about me and suffering, as I am not at the spiritual level where I seek suffering. Yet, sometimes I wish I was at that level to imitate the saints. My priest told me that St. Francis of Assisi and St. Padre Pio received stigmata because they prayed for it at the foot of the Cross. St. John of the Cross, one of the 33 Doctors of the Catholic Church, wanted to suffer in life, “May I suffer and be despised for Thy sake.” sspx.org/Third_Order/Sursum_Corda/january_february_2002.htm St. Louis Mary de Montfort loved nothing more than suffering. thesacredheart.com/sts/montfor.htm St. Teresa de Avila wrote in The Way of Perfection
Chapter. 38 For, as I said a little way back, perfect souls are in no way repelled by trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them. They are like soldiers: the more wars there are, the better they are pleased, because they hope to emerge from them with the greater riches. If there are no wars, they serve for their pay, but they know they will not get very war with that. clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/ctc.htm
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St. Francis of Assisi sought to imitate Christ crucified throughout his life. “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything.”** St. Paul, Second Letter to Timothy, (2:3-7)** St. Therese of Liseux *“Far more by suffering and persecution than by eloquent discourse does Jesus wants to build up his kingdom.” * catholicplanet.com/ebooks/Saint-Therese-Letters.pdf

May the Holy Spirit through the Immaculate Heart of Mary grace us with the gifts that we most desperately need!! May the LOVE and MERCY of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the WONDERS of the Immaculate Heart of Mary be revealed, glorified, and loved throughout the world, throughout all time, forever and ever!!

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse.

For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world! For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world! For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

*Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. *
 
JMJ / MMM 081222 Monday
Dear AneSantaMaria –
You have shared so much and so generously. Your posting deserves a warm and loving sharing in return. I intend to do this later during the day. At the moment I must interrupt. I thank God for your devotion and attention to the saints.
Whatever the time and length of your prayers, always, as you certainly do, cling in Love to Jesus Christ Our Savior.
I’ll write later in the day or tonight before bed. John
(JohnJFarren) Trinity5635@aol.com
 
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