I just got an email from my Parish, regarding Total Consecration on the Feast of the Visitation. Both priest are going to be away that day, but they claim that all that’s necessary for Total Consecration is Holy Communion, which will be offered by an extraordinary minister, and that the confession can be moved to another day during the week. Is that correct? Or are they confusing Total Consecration with other devotions? Saint Louis de Montfort’s book does say you “should go to confession and receive Holy Communion…” (emphasis added) which implies that it’s not required. Please let me know and pray for me.
Glory to God
and
Hail Mary!
You are fortunate that there is even the possibility of recourse to an Extraordinary Minister on that day.
Your priests are assuredly correct.
It is to be remembered and stressed that this is a private devotion, totally under the direction of the Church.
The Holy See has addressed the need for catechesis on Marian entrustment.
*It should be recalled, however, that the term “consecration” is used here in a broad and non-technical sense: “the expression is use of “consecrating children to Our Lady”, by which is intended placing children under her protection and asking her maternal blessing(254) for them”. Some suggest the use of the alternative terms “entrustment” or “gift”. Liturgical theology and the consequent rigorous use of terminology would suggest reserving the term consecration for those self-offerings which have God as their object, and which are characterized by totality and perpetuity, which are guaranteed by the Church’s intervention and have as their basis the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
The faithful should be carefully instructed about the practice of consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. While such can give the impression of being a solemn and perpetual act, it is, in reality, only analogously a “consecration to God”. It springs from a free, personal, mature, decision taken in relation to the operation of grace and not from a fleeting emotion. It should be expressed in a correct liturgical manner: to the Father, through Christ in the Holy Spirit, imploring the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom we entrust ourselves completely, so as to keep our baptismal commitments and live as her children. The act of consecration should take place outside of the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, since it is a devotional act which cannot be assimilated to the Liturgy. It should also be borne in mind that the act of consecration to Mary differs substantially from other forms of liturgical consecration.*
