This website will provide helpful guidance towards dividing the reading during the 33 days (12 days to empty oneself of the spirit of the world, 7 days for knowing oneself, 7 days for knowing Our Lady, 7 days for knowing Our Lord). The 4 sections carry specific prayers.
There are also suggested starting dates in order to be able to do the Consecration on a day dedicated to Our Lady (ex. beginning on June 13 one can end on July 16, liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (though a “better” beginning date would be July 13 to do the Consecration on August 15, Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady).
While the Total Consecration is not in itself a vow, it is a renewal of baptismal vows.
It also has the
character of a
Heroic Act of Charity, in which a member of the Church Militant offers to God all the satisfactory works which he will perform during his lifetime, and also all the suffrages which may accrue to him after his death, depositing the said merits and suffrages as it were into the hands of the Blessed Virgin that she may distribute these favours to souls according to her own merciful pleasure. However, for the Heroic Act of Charity this is limited to the souls in purgatory, while in the Total Consecration this is extended to all souls.
It is essential to read the Treatise on the True Devotion of St. Louis de Montfort in order to understand this devotion well and be able to discern the three degrees of true devotion and the seven false devotions to Our Lady, bearing in mind that the book is not the work of St. Louis but his bringing together an existing corpus of devotions, has been explicitly approved by many saints and popes, and is especially famous because Pope John Paul II - who had done the Total Consecration - chose as his motto the beginning of the “short formula of renewal” of the Consecration: “
Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt”.
It would be nice to do the Consecration after going to Mass and receiving Communion (as the author explains). One could ask the priest prior to the Mass to be a witness to one’s personal consecration, but this is not required. In a local parish near my place there is a yearly time for the Consecration with a public event at the end, and in the local university the campus ministry invites a priest once a year to witness the new consecration or renewals of the consecration after celebrating Mass. The Consecration can be renewed every time we are to receive Communion using the short formula. This is not required but I find it to be a very edifying practice, and is also mentioned by the author.
It would be a good idea to also read the work of Scott Hahn “
Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God” to better grasp how Our Lady is present in Scripture and the role she fulfills - otherwise we may be somewhat surprised by the degree of the statements that some Church Fathers and Church Doctors have spoken about Our Lady (which St. Louis extensively quotes in his Treatise).
I’ll keep an eye on the thread but feel free to PM me if you want to further discuss this devotion (I am no expert but I am very close to it for several reasons, and I’ve done it not too long ago).
