Stupid question about True Devotion to Mary

[clarkest]

I love Jesus very much and try to follow him. It often feels so good to pray to him and to go to Adoration.

I’ve been doing the 33 day prep for consecration to Mary, which is to take place on the feast of the Annunciation (next week!!) but now I’m getting nervous. I love to be with Jesus and do everything for him, but this holy slavery to Jesus through Mary puts Mary between me and Jesus in all my prayers and works. So after my consecration I’m suppised to pray to Mary most of the time instead of to Jesus? I’m obviously all for praying to Mary but, it’s kind of like I’ve finally come to adore the beautiful face of our Saviour, and now that I’ve finally moved forward a bit in the spiritual life, Jesus is asking me to stop lookig directly at him. He wants me to look at him by looking at his mother. To follow him by following his mother. To love him by loving his mother.

I see how it works that we can follow Jesus by following his mother, but I miss the Lord already. Can’t I talk to him with the sweetness that I’m being taught to whisper into Mary’s ear? I just miss the closeness. How can one person do EVERYTHIG with, in and through Mary while still keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus Christ? How do we look at two different people at the same time? I dont want to look at her, I want to look at him!

Please help me!

 

[Nita]

I love Jesus very much and try to follow him. It often feels so good to pray to him and to go to Adoration.

I’ve been doing the 33 day prep for consecration to Mary, which is to take place on the feast of the Annunciation (next week!!) but now I’m getting nervous. I love to be with Jesus and do everything for him, but this holy slavery to Jesus through Mary puts Mary between me and Jesus in all my prayers and works. So after my consecration I’m suppised to pray to Mary most of the time instead of to Jesus? I’m obviously all for praying to Mary but, it’s kind of like I’ve finally come to adore the beautiful face of our Saviour, and now that I’ve finally moved forward a bit in the spiritual life, Jesus is asking me to stop lookig directly at him. He wants me to look at him by looking at his mother. To follow him by following his mother. To love him by loving his mother.

I see how it works that we can follow Jesus by following his mother, but I miss the Lord already. Can’t I talk to him with the sweetness that I’m being taught to whisper into Mary’s ear? I just miss the closeness. How can one person do EVERYTHIG with, in and through Mary while still keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus Christ? How do we look at two different people at the same time? I dont want to look at her, I want to look at him!

Please help me!

You don’t quit centering your mind and heart on Our Lord. (That would be totally contrary to what Mary desires.) You continue to focus primarily on Our Lord and pray to Him – but either before or after praying, place those prayers in Mary’s hands to be presented to Our Lord. And if there are any graces that are merited by your prayers to Our Lord, place their final disposition into her hands.
Please note that this does not mean that you cannot offer your prayers for some intention of your own, but rather that you trust Mary more than yourself to know where those graces are most needed and desired by Our Lord. And so you leave to her the final disposition of any graces you may merit — knowing full well that her only will is to do what Jesus desires and wills.
Beautiful. Your relationship with Jesus continues but is now expanded to include His mother.

 

[steymard]

Two other people in two different threads have essentially asked this same question in recent days. I hope you don’t mind if I repost what I wrote.

“The main thing to remember is that in consecrating yourself to Mary, you are doing what Jesus did - i.e. putting yourself under the complete protection of and obedience to Mary. Jesus did this as an infant and continued to obey her as a son growing up. Therefore you will only be walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

And:

"St. Louis de Montfort says this:

1. Jesus, our Saviour, true God and true man must be the ultimate end of all our other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of everything. “We labour,” says St. Paul, “only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ.”
   …

1. If then we are establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. If devotion to our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to reject it as an illusion of the devil. But this is far from being the case. As I have already shown and will show again later on, this devotion is necessary, simply and solely because it is a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him faithfully.

1. Here I turn to you for a moment, dear Jesus, to complain lovingly to your divine Majesty that the majority of Christians, and even some of the most learned among them, do not recognise the necessary bond that unites you and your Blessed Mother. Lord, you are always with Mary and Mary is always with you. She can never be without you because then she would cease to be what she is. She is so completely transformed into you by grace that she no longer lives, she no longer exists, because you alone, dear Jesus, live and reign in her more perfectly than in all the angels and saints. If we only knew the glory and the love given to you by this wonderful creature, our feelings for you and for her would be far different from those we have now. So intimately is she united to you that it would be easier to separate light from the sun, and heat from the fire. I go further, it would even be easier to separate all the angels and saints from you than Mary; for she loves you ardently, and glorifies you more perfectly than all your other creatures put together.

We indeed practice consecration to Jesus through Mary. But it can truly be spoken of as consecration to Mary, because wherever Mary is, there is Christ; indeed, just as Christ did not come into the world without Mary, Christ does not come into our hearts without Mary, though we know it not. Mary is in no place other than the divine will, for her will is entirely to do the will of Jesus. It is not a zero-sum affair; it is not Christ or Mary, but Christ and Mary. So we can say that the safest place to be is in the arms of Mary, for in her arms she cradles Christ - Christ in the swaddling cloths of birth and Christ being prepared for the shroud of burial."

I am glad you are thinking of the ultimate end of your devotions. Will this leave you estranged from Christ? Will it render you separate from His Sacred Heart? The answer is NO!!! Talk to Jesus, adore Him, pour out your heart to Him with your whole heart. One of the main points of Consecration to Jesus through Mary is that you will begin to love Jesus with the heart of Mary. Have no fear. Our Blessed Mother can lead no one astray.

 

[po18guy]

It does not put Mary between you and the Lord, it puts her beside you on your journey to Him.

 

[Memaw]

It does not put Mary between you and the Lord, it puts her beside you on your journey to Him.

AMEN to all the above. Trust Her to help you Love Our Lord even more. God trusted her with HIS SON!!. God Bless, Memaw

 

[clarkest]

Your relationship with Jesus continues but is now expanded to include His mother.

“the safest place to be is in the arms of Mary, for in her arms she cradles Christ - Christ in the swaddling cloths of birth and Christ being prepared for the shroud of burial.” -De Montfort
. . . you will begin to love Jesus with the heart of Mary. Have no fear.

It does not put Mary between you and the Lord, it puts her beside you on your journey to Him.

Trust Her to help you Love Our Lord even more.

Thank you all for your words and kindness. What you all say makes sense and fills me up with a sort of sweetness and tenderness to this devotion. How precious to be cradled in the arms of our Mother just as Jesus Christ was. What a excellent way to express the reality of this devotion, that our relationship with Christ continued but is expanded to include Mary. Yes, Mary is not between me and Christ, but beside me helping me run towards him.

I don’t have a copy of True Devotion and can’t afford to buy any extra stuff right now (medical issues…). I do have a copy of the Secret of Mary, though, which is basically a summary of True Devotion. A very kind person gave me this little booklet for free.

 

[Amiciel]

I see how it works that we can follow Jesus by following his mother, but I miss the Lord already. Can’t I talk to him with the sweetness that I’m being taught to whisper into Mary’s ear? I just miss the closeness. How can one person do EVERYTHIG with, in and through Mary while still keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus Christ? How do we look at two different people at the same time? I dont want to look at her, I want to look at him!

Please help me!

Hi. The above replies do answer very well your apprehension. Let me just add the following link. It contains excerpts from St. Louis de Montfort’s booklet, The Secret of Mary on (1) directly speaking to the Lord in prayer and contemplation, which we can still do and (Post # 38); and (2) being united to our Blessed Mother, compared to God’s indwelling in us (Post # 39).

I hope you will find them helpful. Wishing you God’s special blessings on March 25th!

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=10309837#post10309837

 

[glendab]

Well, I admit I’m a little troubled by two things already, you’re Catholic and have no real understating of Mary’s role in our Salvation history or you’d not fear praying to her. Catholicism without Mary isn’t Catholicism.

The other troubling thing is you seem to think joining yourself to her in your heart and doing all things through and with her is going to separate you from God. This says you don’t have the understanding necessary to completely and truly give your self over in any form of Consecration.

I elaborate: those who say join the Franciscans will follow Christ by following St. Francis in all they do and say and pray and are and their approach to Heaven is through St. Francis from the moment of their Consecration forward, he becomes their intermediary with God. They *belong *to St. Francis. The same thing applies to those who join the Benedictines: they do it all through and with St. Benedict and follow Christ by following his way of life. He becomes their primary intercessory in Heaven and they belong to him. This is why knowing one’s founder is in Heaven, a Saint, is pretty important to those who are called to Religious life although it isn’t the only reason. Their way of life if followed perfectly leads to Heaven. We who are Consecrated to Jesus thru Mary according to the Montfort formula do the same although not all of us do so in Religious life as Priests, Brothers and Sisters.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain how this works is to repeat what Mary said in her Magnificat: My soul MAGNIFIES the Lord… for with her God is at His greatest in our lives. This gets lost when you use more Modern translations that take away the word magnify to replaces it with proclaims the greatness of, etc. I always thought of Mary as a magnifying glass somewhat to understand what she meant. Kinda childish but it works.

If you don’t understand what you are promising in making the Consecration, then you shouldn’t do it until you do because you are promising God something very important. You wouldn’t enter marriage without knowing what you are about to agree to, so if you lack this understanding, you SHIOULD STOP BEFORE YOU MAKE A PROMISE YOU CANNOT KEEP. Your question therefore really isn’t stupid.

Glenda

 

[Loving_disciple]

If you gaze at Mary you will ultimately be looking at Jesus because one who loves Mary will love Jesus even more

 

[clarkest]

Well, I admit I’m a little troubled by two things already, you’re Catholic and have no real understating of Mary’s role in our Salvation history or you’d not fear praying to her. Catholicism without Mary isn’t Catholicism.

The other troubling thing is you seem to think joining yourself to her in your heart and doing all things through and with her is going to separate you from God. This says you don’t have the understanding necessary to completely and truly give your self over in any form of Consecration.

I elaborate: those who say join the Franciscans will follow Christ by following St. Francis in all they do and say and pray and are and their approach to Heaven is through St. Francis from the moment of their Consecration forward, he becomes their intermediary with God. They *belong *to St. Francis. The same thing applies to those who join the Benedictines: they do it all through and with St. Benedict and follow Christ by following his way of life. He becomes their primary intercessory in Heaven and they belong to him. This is why knowing one’s founder is in Heaven, a Saint, is pretty important to those who are called to Religious life although it isn’t the only reason. Their way of life if followed perfectly leads to Heaven. We who are Consecrated to Jesus thru Mary according to the Montfort formula do the same although not all of us do so in Religious life as Priests, Brothers and Sisters.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain how this works is to repeat what Mary said in her Magnificat: My soul MAGNIFIES the Lord… for with her God is at His greatest in our lives. This gets lost when you use more Modern translations that take away the word magnify to replaces it with proclaims the greatness of, etc. I always thought of Mary as a magnifying glass somewhat to understand what she meant. Kinda childish but it works.

If you don’t understand what you are promising in making the Consecration, then you shouldn’t do it until you do because you are promising God something very important. You wouldn’t enter marriage without knowing what you are about to agree to, so if you lack this understanding, you SHIOULD STOP BEFORE YOU MAKE A PROMISE YOU CANNOT KEEP. Your question therefore really isn’t stupid.

Glenda

Glenda, I’m not really sure where you got the idea that I’m afraid to pray to Mary. I already do have some devotion to her. But it is true, my understanding of her role in this devotion and in salvation history is lacking. I do not understand the mysteries of God. I don’t understand his ways, and so I could not ever fully understand Mary’s role.

I ask you, just as I have asked God and Mary, to forgive my extraordinary level of ignorance and nervousness when it comes to who Mary is and how we are to approach her. I do of course have the teachings of the teachings of the Church about her down pat, but I was raised protestant. A calvinist type of protestant. And so, even though intellectually I understand what the Church teaches of Mary, and through practicing Marian devotions I have learned to love her, I still get a little nervous sometimes, even if I’m not exactly sure what I’m nervous about. I was raised in a family that includes people who believe awful thibgs about Catholicism. The pope is the antichrist, Catholics worship Mary, all the typical anti-Catholic silly stuff. So when I felt very convicted that God was asking.me to become Catholic, despite what my family believes and what I at the time believed myself, I closed my eyes and walked by faith and not by sight, following Jesus Christ all the way to Rome. And now I believe he is leading me to his mother in this devotion. Yes I do not fully understand it, but really who does? All I can do is close my eyes and walk with the faith of a child, trusting that the Good Shepherd really is good and will lead me to those who will take me closer to him. Because that’s all I care about, being with and being like my beautiful Jesus.

 

[fred_conty]

I love Jesus very much and try to follow him. It often feels so good to pray to him and to go to Adoration.

I’ve been doing the 33 day prep for consecration to Mary, which is to take place on the feast of the Annunciation (next week!!) but now I’m getting nervous. I love to be with Jesus and do everything for him, but this holy slavery to Jesus through Mary puts Mary between me and Jesus in all my prayers and works. So after my consecration I’m suppised to pray to Mary most of the time instead of to Jesus? I’m obviously all for praying to Mary but, it’s kind of like I’ve finally come to adore the beautiful face of our Saviour, and now that I’ve finally moved forward a bit in the spiritual life, Jesus is asking me to stop lookig directly at him. He wants me to look at him by looking at his mother. To follow him by following his mother. To love him by loving his mother.

I see how it works that we can follow Jesus by following his mother, but I miss the Lord already. Can’t I talk to him with the sweetness that I’m being taught to whisper into Mary’s ear? I just miss the closeness. How can one person do EVERYTHIG with, in and through Mary while still keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus Christ? How do we look at two different people at the same time? I dont want to look at her, I want to look at him!

Please help me!

I can only tell you what I have experienced, and that is, I don’t pray to Mary that often outside of a rosary and a chaplet. All my attention and thoughts are focused on the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. That is the purpose of Mary, to make your prayers more loving to the Trinity, and to obtain her special care for you. Mary knows how to love. She will teach you when you say yes to her.

When a new day begins, have the intention of doing all, even the little things, for Jesus…thru Mary. And then pray and focus your attention as you would on Jesus the rest of the day.

There will be times when you feel the need to call upon her, and then that is the time for you to be close to her. And those times will vary. You never have to worry about dividing time. Just love Jesus and when the time comes to call on Mary it will just happen. You will know.

This is a very special time for you making the act of consecration. Many graces flow from this. You have been blessed.

May God bless and keep you. May God’s face shine on you. May God be kind to you and give you peace.

 

[steymard]

BTW, I put my previous post inside regular “quotation marks” and just used the inbuilt quote feature for the Montfort, so you were quoting me the whole time.

Yes, Mary is not between me and Christ, but beside me helping me run towards him.

Yes, she is beside you and Christ, but she is also between you and Christ by means of this devotion - not hindering but helping. Your own state of sin hinders you from looking on Christ with perfect charity, although you do indeed have great love for him. Going through Mary is like looking through a perfectly polished magnifying glass. It’s so perfectly polished that the only thing you see is Christ magnified and clear. I said you will begin to love Jesus with the heart of Mary; well, you will also begin to see Jesus with the eyes of Mary. Where did her eyes linger? On the face of Christ. Mary is our model of Eucharistic adoration since the beginning of his birth. Don’t be afraid of saying that you will go through Mary. Another analogy: Christ is the head and Mary is the neck. She is really the channel of grace for the world. (says St. Pius X) I should actually quote section 15 of this wonderful teaching.

1. These principles laid down, and to return to our design, who will not see that we have with good reason claimed for Mary that - as the constant companion of Jesus from the house at Nazareth to the height of Calvary, as beyond all others initiated to the secrets of his Heart, and as the distributor, by right of her Motherhood, of the treasures of His merits, - she is, for all these reasons, a most sure and efficacious assistance to us for arriving at the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Those, alas! furnish us by their conduct with a peremptory proof of it, who seduced by the wiles of the demon or deceived by false doctrines think they can do without the help of the Virgin. Hapless are they who neglect Mary under pretext of the honor to be paid to Jesus Christ! As if the Child could be found elsewhere than with the Mother!

• Pope St. Pius X, Encylical Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum

You have “gone through” Mary ever since the Annunciation, because by her fiat, her “yes” to God, she became the only way that Christ came into the world. It’s how we got Christ and it’s how we get Christ. The Total Consecration makes this wonderfully explicit.

It’s important to understand this point about going through Mary - in some ways it’s the fullest expression of what we believe as Catholics about the communion of saints. Again, you can always pray to Christ - but with the consecration you are asking our Lady to pass these prayers to Christ through her hands. It’s an intention made at the beginning of the consecration and which you can often renew with a short prayer, in which you request everything that you subsequently do to ultimately be offered up to Mary to do with as she wishes. So your times of Eucharistic adoration don’t stop - but the merits of your adoration you give to Mary. But wait, doesn’t this mean you can’t pray for anything in any meaningful sense? No! Remember, the intention to offer up all merits to our Lady to dispense is made by your intention at the consecration. You can certainly go to Mass and make the intention that your offering will benefit, say, your faithful departed relatives. You don’t even have to consciously mention Mary at this point, but by virtue of the consecration she will dispense the graces of your offering. But our Lady is not ungrateful and she will take care of your request.

I don’t have a copy of True Devotion and can’t afford to buy any extra stuff right now (medical issues…). I do have a copy of the Secret of Mary, though, which is basically a summary of True Devotion. A very kind person gave me this little booklet for free.

You can find the entire text of True Devotion here: fisheaters.com/totalconsecrationmontfort.html. It also contains the list of 33-day readings designed by Montfort.

I think it’s important to consider what glenda mentioned. If you are still not comfortable with the concept of “going through” Mary (which is precisely what this is), then it may be advisable not to go through with it right now and take some time to read through True Devotion, the encyclical I quoted earlier, some other papal documents on Mary (especially Ineffabilis Deus and Munificentissimus Deus), and perhaps even listen to this excellent lecture series on Mary. You could make the full Montfortian preparation and consecration on, say on Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16) or the Feast of the Assumption (August 15). I know, it’s a lot of homework. I really recommend it though, if you are to understand Mary’s role in the Church completely, and regardless of whether you choose to put the consecration off until later.

I say this as a former Protestant who also had to spend some time learning about Mary and getting used to Catholic doctrine about her.

 

[steymard]

I briefly mentioned Mary when I spoke about Eucharistic adoration.

Here is a blog post by a Benedictine monk who reflects on Mary as an adorer of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus. It is quite beautiful.

 

[clarkest]

I don’t have the internet at home, or tv for that matter. I have 1GB of data on my phone, and that’s all the internet I use in a month so I can’t really read an entire book online on my phone… I live simply.

 

[steymard]

Is it possible for you to visit a place with free Wifi? Like a library, a bookstore, a coffee shop, a cafe. There’s an app called “Consecration to Mary” which has the Secret of Mary, True Devotion to Mary, and all the readings and prayers in it. Once you’ve downloaded it, you don’t need to use data to read the material. You could also potentially download the audio lectures I mentioned to your phone if you follow the links.

Just to clarify, are you doing the Montfort-prescribed readings? Or are you using the Father Gaitley version?

 

[clarkest]

Is it possible for you to visit a place with free Wifi? Like a library, a bookstore, a coffee shop, a cafe. There’s an app called “Consecration to Mary” which has the Secret of Mary, True Devotion to Mary, and all the readings and prayers in it. Once you’ve downloaded it, you don’t need to use data to read the material. You could also potentially download the audio lectures I mentioned to your phone if you follow the links.

Just to clarify, are you doing the Montfort-prescribed readings? Or are you using the Father Gaitley version?

I can get to these places when I have someone to drive me and accompany me while there. I’m in the middle of a health crisis and can hardly do anything at all. Going out takes a lot and so if I’m going somewhere I’d rather it be to say work or get groceries. It may seem silly that I cant just hop over to some cafe for ten minutes but it really is a bit much for me. I have been asking around to see if anyone i know has a copy i can borrow but so far no luck.

As for the version I’m using, neither you mentioned. I’m using a booklet someone gave me, I cant remember the name of it. But for the last two weeks I’ve been doing the de montfort readings in addition to the booklet, and the whole time i’ve been doing the prayers on the fisheaters website for the 33 day prep. I like them better than the one in the boojlet I have. So…a combination of different versions?

 

[glendab]

Hello Clark. (Last name isn’t Kent is it? LOL)

I love Jesus very much and try to follow him…
I’ve been doing the 33 day prep for consecration to Mary, but now I’m getting nervous…but this holy slavery to Jesus through Mary puts Mary between me and Jesus in all my prayers and works. So after my consecration I’m suppised to pray to Mary most of the time instead of to Jesus?…I see how it works that we can follow Jesus by following his mother, but I miss the Lord already…I just miss the closeness. How can one person do EVERYTHIG with, in and through Mary while still keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus Christ? How do we look at two different people at the same time? I dont want to look at her, I want to look at him!

I’ve pared down your OP so you can see what I saw when I read it. Mary doesn’t eliminate Jesus. It isn’t an either/or situation, it is a both/and situation.

After your revelation of your past upbringing I can see how some things Catholic disturb you. I’d say that obviously this Consecration isn’t for you. That is okay. It isn’t for everyone, but only for those who are called to it. If you were called to it, it would make perfect sense to you.

If you are, as you say “missing” Jesus already, then I’d say stoop because something is getting in the way of your closeness to the Lord, but it isn’t Mary, His Mother.

I’ve tried to show how Consecration works by giving other examples such as those who follow Jesus through St. Francis’ way and St Benedict’s way but that didn’t compute with you either. So obviously you aren’t supposed to go the way of Consecration. It isn’t for everyone, so don’t sweat it.

As for the praying to Mary most of the time thing, have you ever counted how may Hail Mary’s you say in the Rosary say as to compared to how many Our Father’s you pray? If you pray a Rosary, you already ARE praying to Mary most of the time while you do so.

You said yourself that you don’t want to look at her, so don’t. No one is going to make you accept Mary as your Mother, but Jesus did and if it is good enough for Him to do so, then I follow Him by doing so as well. It is easy for me because I’m called to this particular Consecration. I works very well for me. I am Jesus’ through Mary, with Mary, in Mary and by Mary and every thing I have and do are to God through her. She truly is my Mother as well. I’ve been Consecrated to Jesus through Mary according to the Montfort formula for quite a few years now. I love it. I renew it quite often and each time I do I move a little closer to Jesus in my unitive way.

Does that help?

Glenda

 

[clarkest]

obviously this Consecration isn’t for you.

If you are, as you say “missing” Jesus already, then I’d say stoop because something is getting in the way of your closeness to the Lord, but it isn’t Mary, His Mother.

You said yourself that you don’t want to look at her, so don’t. No one is going to make you accept Mary as your Mother

My missing Jesus is purely emotional and not based on truth because Jesus is here with me now just as much as he was before I embarked on this journey. I dont think it’s good to base decisions on emotions. They are fickle, and if I’d leaned on them then I wouldnt have become Catholic in the first place because my family sure wasnt all for it. My conversion wasnt a bucket of roses. Missing Jesus is merely indicitive of my lack of understanding of how this consecration works practically. But some posters have shown how it works for them and that’s very helpful.

I’m a little surprised that after a handful of posts you’ve come to the conclusion that I shouldnt go through with the consecration, and are quite forward with the discouragement. Though I will pray about the things you’ve said, I’m just surprised. I’ve only grown in virtue since I’ve begun the preparation and can see the beginning of a beautiful blossom of a very deep devotion to my spiritual Mother and better service to her Son. I came to this forum to start this thread because I had to make sure I really understand the implications of what I’m offering, I’m just so surprised to be told not to gonthrough with it!

 

[steymard]

Clarkest, I think that while your fears about total consecration have been somewhat put away by responses on this thread, it is advisable to begin the 33-day consecration knowing exactly what you’re getting into. A mere handful of days before the final consecration is not a point at which you should have thought that going through Mary should be in any way a bad thing. If it’s just an emotional blip, perhaps - but there seemed to be a little doctrinal uncertainty about the nature of Mary as mediatrix of graces when you posted your initial question. Perhaps you feel you’ve resolved that now.

My personal recommendation is to wait for the next Marian feast at least so that you can be sure of starting the 33-day preparation with a firm understanding and acceptance of what “going through” entails. Mary is going to be your mediator for the Mediator. (again, all graces already flow through her hands. This is a voluntary subjection of the will to her, from which many more graces will abound)

You might decide to just go through with it for the 25th of March. In that case, I would reiterate my advice to get some of those materials downloaded on to your phone the next time you encounter Wifi, and to perhaps renew the 33-day consecration preparation at another date this year even before next March. It never hurts to really try your best to get this acquiring the spirit of Mary down. Mary knows I need refreshing on this a lot!

 

[Amiciel]

More than anyone else, Clarkest, it is you who can know toward what direction you are being moved interiorly by the Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother, and by the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier.

Your readiness / willingness to pray over what glenda has brought up is indicative of humility, an attitude certainly required of one making the Consecration. Steymard has given some very good suggestions, too.

So, in these few days before the Feast of the Annunciation, maintain your peace of heart and soul. Carefully and prayerfully weigh your options, and pray for guidance to discern what the Lord’s will is for you, come March 25th.

I’ll be praying with you … God bless!